


Sans Sheriff

by JED1



Series: Miraculous Tales [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Action, Cliffhangers, Drama, Female-Pronoun-Nooroo, Foul Language/Cursing/Mouth like a Sailor, Gen, Minor canon divergence, Only for the first 2 chapters though, UA, Universe Alterations, Wee bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 07:32:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 45,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8436871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JED1/pseuds/JED1
Summary: It could not be delayed anymore. “Nooroo.  Transform me!”  The Akumas took wing, swirling into a maelstrom around him even as Nooroo was drawn, ever unwillingly, into the brooch.  And the moment the Kwami entered and powered the brooch, the Akumas landed upon him, shielding him from the world for one instant beneath rustling white wings… before bursting away to flutter in gentle orbit around Papillon. Papillon breathed deep, and opened his eyes, and held out a hand.  “And now, an experiment that, if successful, should prove most fruitful.”  An Akuma landed on his palm and Papillon rested his other hand in a gentle dome over the Akuma, charging it with dark energy until it’s once white wings became a char black, only flickers of it’s true purple managing to shine through the cracks. Papillon released the Akuma and leaned back, resting his hands on his cane before him as he watched it leave.  “Fly away, my evil little Akuma, and lie in wait until I call for you.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

>   
>  [Original Akuma](https://meggymoohoo.tumblr.com/post/142210483470/what-if-the-akumas-kept-the-appearance-of-the) design a commission from the ever amazing [Meggymoohoo!](http://meggymoohoo.tumblr.com)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few terms/concepts that are canon in my fanfic series that are NOT canon in the main show... such as akumas having a different appearance after a Champion accepts Papillon's deal, the use of 'Miraculous Restoration' instead of Miraculous Ladybug, the kwamis have a slightly different look from canon, and the concept of a 'glamour' that helps protect the identities of Miraculous Chosen.  
> To see what these important 'AU from canon, but canon in this series' facts are please click [here.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8189071/chapters/25892577)  
> To see what my Statute of Limitations on Spoiler Warnings ( _the amount of time that I will post Spoiler Warnings at the start of chapters/in comments_ ) as well as seeing a list of Fandom Terminology that I use in my tags, notes and comments, please click [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8189071/chapters/19397227).  
> ~~~~~~  
> This chapter and the next are the reason for the 'foul language' tag. If a large amount of cursing offends, please be aware before proceeding ^_^

“Here.”

The gun was laid down on the seat beside her, and Maxime snapped her gaze up and away, focusing on the road as she pulled the car up in front of the bank and put the car into park. “I don’t… I don’t need a gun,” she said, trying for calm. “Probably best if I don’t have one… someone might walk by, see it. Not much good as a getaway car if a pedestrian starts screaming.” 

“Take. The gun,” Simone growled. 

“It really would be better if I didn’t-” 

“Don’t you back out, asshole. *WE* are going in and taking the actual risk, so you take the god damned GUN.” 

And with that Simone slid the sawed-off shotgun under her jacket and got out of the car. Philippe, Steven and Sam got out of the back seat, Sam leaning forward and slapping Maxime’s shoulders, laughing at how she jumped. 

Maxime watched them walk into the bank, and the second they were in, she lunged forward, grabbing the gun and shoving it into the glove compartment. “Fucking Harpy. Coulda just done this without guns, but then Sammy hadda go and let the freaking psycho girlfriend know. Fuck my life…” 

Maxime drummed her hands on the steering wheel, then cursed and turned the car off and got out, heading towards the bank at a run. Dammit, she hadn’t SIGNED UP FOR THIS SHIT. 

Hitting the doors, she threw them wide and looked around to get orientated. Seeing Simone, she took off in a running tackle. “THEY’VE GOT GUNS!!” 

Simone went down from the tackle, but even as they both hit the floor, Philippe and Sam pulled their guns out and shot up the ceiling. The shots echoed and re-echoed, chunks of plaster and glass raining down as the two kept shooting. All around them people screamed and threw themselves to the floor. 

“Get down!” 

“Get down on the Ground!” 

“GIVE US THE FUCKING MONEY!” 

On the floor, Maxime struggled to keep Simone down, even as Philippe, Sam and Steven shouted and continued to shoot indiscriminately the ceiling and once or twice even at the floor as the people in the bank screamed and cowered on the floor. Philippe ran to the tellers and started grabbing them, dragging them straight up and over the counter and to the floor while Sam and Steven started forcing people to the open center of the bank. 

“Give us the money, fool!” 

“We got this, Philippe!” 

“ComeOnComeOnComeOn- Up and fucking over, jackass.” 

“You guys are SO FUCKED.” 

Simone suddenly managed to catch Maxime’s throat with an elbow and Maxime collapsed to the ground, gagging and trying to BREATHE as Simone surged to her feet, pulling her sawed off out from under her jacket and taking aim at Maxime. 

“Where’s all the MONEY?” 

“Actually, where’s secur-? Don’t you press that fucking button!” 

Maxime could only stare, frozen, still struggling for air… but both she and Simone jumped when alarms began to blare and lights began to flash, and Simone stared up at the three men in disgust. “What are you doing?! You’re FUCKING us!!” 

“FUCK.” 

“Okay, we can work with this.” 

Philippe spun towards one of the tellers and took aim. “Get up! Get the vault! Open the vault!” When the man cowered back and away, Philippe shot the ground beside the teller, then grabbed the man by the shoulder and hauled him to his feet, dragging the teller towards the vault door. “Open the fucking vault!” 

“We’re FUCKED!” 

“No, no, no, we’re fine, we’re fine.” 

“Faster, faster, faster, FASTER!” 

“Calm the hell down, Steven,” Simone growled, walking over and pressing her shotgun up against the Teller’s head. “Open. The. Vault.” She glanced up as the alarms continued to blare. “And someone KILL the fucking ALARM.” 

“I need a second set of key codes,” the Teller offered, unable to look away from the shotgun. When Simone pulled the shotgun around and shot the wall beside him, then pressed it to his head again, the man whimpered. “R… Rémy has them…” he pointed over at a second man, looking towards him with frantic desperation. “RÉMY!” he begged. 

A stout, middle aged man tensed, then slowly got to his feet, walking over. When both Sam and Steven swung their guns towards him, he tensed, but didn’t run or panic. “I have the second key-code,” he said, in a calm tone of voice, carefully picking his way past the armed robbers, glancing down at Maxime as he walked past her before coming up beside Simone. “Alright, let’s not hurt anybody, I’ve got the key-code right here.” He jumped, closing his eyes for a second when Simone swung the shotgun around and held it up to his face. Simone laughed and grabbed Rémy, shoving him forward to the vault door. “It’ll be alright,” Rémy promised the Teller quietly as they both entered the key-codes and the vault swung open. 

“Yoink.” 

“So far? Awesome teamwork.” 

“I feel like we’re doing better now.” 

Maxime looked around, eyes darting from the hostages to the two tellers that Simone was shoving up against a wall while Philippe ran into the vault with the duffel bags to begin stuffing them with cash… to the heavy boot that suddenly landed right in front of her face. 

She didn’t even get a chance to look up before a meaty hand was buried in her hair, dragging her up to her feet. Maxime reached up and grabbed at Steven’s hand and wrist, digging in with her nails, trying to get free, hating her dreads in this one moment. Why the FUCK hadn’t she kept her hair short?! 

“How’s the filling going?” 

“It’s going, it’s not like the money is jumping in on it’s own!” 

“How long does it take to shove money in a bag?” 

“It doesn’t have to be NEAT just shovel it in!” 

Maxime couldn’t help the half sob, half scream that escaped her as Steven ground the gun harder and harder against her temple, dragging her around by her hair, yanking her off her feet. She was going to die… Steven was going to pull the trigger either by mistake or on purpose and it’d be over. Maxime looked around wildly at the others, hoping that maybe they’d at least keep Steven from killing her. 

But Sam was watching and laughing, Philippe was too distracted filling the last of the five duffel bags with cash to realize what was going on. Simone had an avid look in her eyes, like she was counting down the seconds until Steven pulled the trigger. Steven dragged Maxime around again and Maxime only got glimpses of the room around her as she was ripped off balance, flashes amidst the flickering lights and blaring alarms. 

Philippe bringing the last duffel out and adding it to the pile. 

People cowering on the ground, crying and as terrified as Maxime was. 

Sam going over and helping Philippe pick up and carry the five duffels 

A shadow in the front doors, backlit by the setting sun; there, then gone, in one flicker of the lights. 

The two tellers standing, facing the wall, Simone’s rifle still aimed at them as the defacto leader of the heist gleefully debated over whether or not to kill them and everyone else in the bank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit (12/12/16): The character Maxime was originally called Max. She was INTENDED to be a simple one-off/one-shot character, however she ended up being something of a fan favorite, and I loved writing her and intend to haver her come back... but this created a problem.  
> When she was a one shot, her sharing a name with an established canon character was no issue... but now that she will be showing up/reoccuring at some point in the future, readers will have the issue of seeing the name 'Max' and wondering 'Which Max'.  
> So I decided to switch from her nickname (Max) to her full name (Maxime) to hopefully cut it off at the pass. ^_^
> 
> Edit: 1/1/17  
> I am a patreon of the AMAZING [Dire](https://portentous-offerings.tumblr.com/) on [Dire's Patreon Page](https://www.patreon.com/Dire_Hard/), and part of said patreon perks is a monthly request for a character drawing... So for November, I asked if Dire could draw Maxime for me.  
> LOOK AT HOW AWESOME THIS IS!!!!!  
>   
> Dire also went SO AMAZINGLY above and beyond and actually also did a color version of this line art, which I have displayed at the end of the next chapter.  
> I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! ^_^


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maxime 'Sailormouth' continues to curse up a storm. If foul language offends, please be aware before you proceed.

Maxime managed to get her feet back under her and looked over, frantic, hoping that Philippe was done and would see what was happening. Philippe was the calmest, the most stable person she knew, he wouldn’t… he was her big brother, he couldn’t let Steven kill her like this!

“Everybody’s gonna be fine! Just stop struggling, Maxy!” 

“This is it, this is it, thisIsIt…” 

“Everybody just be COOL as a fucking CUCUMBER, alright?!” 

“Okay, last bag!” 

“I think this is going well!!” 

As she tried to turn to look towards the vault, Maxime froze, staring without comprehension. 

A slim, black leather clad form was stalking towards her and Steven, right through the middle of the bank. Maxime felt Steven tense as he saw the incoming apparition as well. Steven started to bring the gun up and around towards the newcomer… who suddenly lunged forward, wrapping his hand around the barrel of the gun so that his palm covered the muzzle, and then a fist was whistling past Maxime’s face to slam into Steven’s nose with a solid sounding CRUNCH. 

Steven went staggering back, and the gun went off right in Maxime’s ear. “JESUS FUCK!” Maxime yelped, scrambling away, pressing a hand to her now deafened right ear even as Steven hit the ground, unconscious. 

…She wasn’t bleeding. Maxime took her hand away from her ear, then frantically checked the rest of head but she… how the fuck even?! 

“What the FLYING FUCK?!” 

“Steven, what the hell are you doing on the-Who the FUCK?!” 

“What’s happened!? Who the hell’s the guy in the black leather CAT SUIT?!” 

“Did CHAT NOIR JUST PUNCH HIM!?” 

Maxime backed up, eyes locked on the black-clad form that was standing in the middle of the bank, who’s green eyes were focused on the gun in his hand. Chat Noir reached up with his other hand and grabbed the grip of the gun and BENT THE GUN IN HALF before tossing it aside with an expression of disgust. 

“Who the hell invited Chat Noir!?” 

“Fucking invited himself! Steven just got decked by Chat Fucking Noir!” 

“OH SHIT!” 

Chat Noir looked up and took in the situation, lips raising in a snarl as Sam and Simone brought their guns up to bear on him. Maxime dove to the ground as both opened fire. Chat Noir took the impacts with no harm, and looked down at his frame before looking up and giving the trio of armed robbers a disbelieving stare. “What the- …Are you all completely OUT OF YOUR MINDS?!” the superhero demanded, heading towards them with his tail lashing. 

“Okay, he is still moving, shooting did NOT work!” 

“What the actual fuck!?” 

“There is now-Ohhhh no, ” Sam brought up his gun and opened fire again, hitting Chat Noir in the stomach and shoulder, the superhero pausing and seemingly instinctively raising one arm to protect his head as Sam continued to open fire… his other hand slid around to his back, and suddenly a silver staff extended, hitting Philippe in the shoulder before the staff retracted sharply. 

“Ow!” 

“Alright this is-” 

“Okay, I think we pissed him o-” 

“Ohhhh shit.” Simone added a shot from her shotgun while Sam continued to fire and Philippe hesitated, waffling between grabbing the bags of cash or adding his firepower to the mess. 

“Don’t you fucking bail on me now!” 

“This is bad, this is bad…” 

“I am not going down to a tiny brat in skin-tight fucking LEATHER!” 

Chat leapt forward, hitting Sam in a tackle that sent both skidding across the polished marble floor into the vault. Philippe cursed and threw his gun to the ground, then grabbed as many of the bags as he could and took off running towards the car. Simone started to follow, then her eyes latched onto Maxime and she lunged forward, grabbing Maxime by her hair and digging the shotgun into her stomach. 

“Let me go you fucking HARPY!” 

Simone shook Maxime’s head by her hair sharply and kept dragging her towards the door at a run. Philippe looked up from where he was tossing the bags into the car's backseat. “Simone, what the hell are you-?” 

“Hostage! Drive the damn car, Maxypad!” 

Maxime couldn’t help the kick she aimed at Simone at that. Fucking HATED that nickname! 

Simone ignored the kick, getting into the car and shoving Maxime into the driver seat in front of her before scrambling from the backseat to the front passenger seat, keeping the gun aimed at Maxime as she went. “Just get in the damn car, Philippe!” 

As Simone leaned forward to grab the driver seat, digging her shotgun back into Maxime’s belly. Philippe cursed and dove into the car, slamming Maxime’s door and his own as he scrambled to sit behind Simone in the rear passenger seat. 

“DRIVE!” 

Maxime turned the car on as she buckled up out of habit and slammed her foot onto the gas- 

Just in time to accidentally run over Chat Noir as the superhero ran out of the bank. “SHIT! Fuck, sorry!” 

Maxime hit the brakes out of instinct as Chat Noir was sent flying forward onto the street, the baton he’d been holding in his hand and talking into going flying to clatter to a stop even further away. Simone punched Maxime in the face and Maxime cursed. “Oh come on, I did not fucking sign up for RUNNING OVER SUPERHEROES!” 

“DRIVE, MAXYPAD! Do not think that will hesitate to empty this gun into your GUTS!” 

Maxime took her foot off the brakes and raced off down the street, although she did make sure to swing AROUND the leather clad kid that was slowly trying to get back up. Jesus Christ, he was TINY… 

Maxime drove through the streets of Paris, doing her best to dodge pedestrians and stay ahead of the cops, and every turn jerked Simone and Philippe around and made Simone dig her gun harder and harder into Maxime’s stomach as minutes dragged by. 

_THUMP THUMP!_

All three of them looked up at the double impact to the car’s roof. What was- 

_SKKKKRUNNEEECH!_

A set of black claws appeared in the roof, and Maxime glanced to the side mirrors, where she could just see Chat Noir and Ladybug perched on the roof of the car, Chat Noir holding onto the roof with one hand, and holding one of Ladybug’s hands to keep her braced with his other. Simone ripped the shotgun away from Maxime’s stomach and fired up at the roof. There was a yelp from Ladybug, but it was one of surprise, not pain. 

Maxime looked ahead, at the building she had been about to turn at. Time for Plan Fuck It. 

She didn’t turn. Chat Noir had apparently held up to being run over, and both of the superheroes had held up to gun fire. They SHOULD be alright… 

The car slammed into the building. Maxime was thrown against her seatbelt even as the airbag caught her in the face. Bruised but alright. 

Simone and Philippe were thrown forward and into the dash… and there were two startled yelps and thuds from above as Ladybug and Chat Noir were thrown off the top of the car and into the wall. 

“…Or the driver could do that,” a female voice mumbled. 

“My bruises have bruises.” 

The driver side door was suddenly wrenched open and Maxime looked to the side to find herself facing the Parisian superheroes. “Why do you have a TARP?” 

Ladybug jumped and looked at the wadded up red black-spotted fabric in her hand. “Uh. I was going to throw it in front of the car so it’d bind up your axle and force you to stop.” 

“Oh. …OH.” Maxime tried to push the air bag down so she could see the front of the car. “That probably would have been better than Plan F.” 

“Plan F?” Chat Noir asked. 

“Plan Fuck it.” Maxime blinked when both superheroes blushed. Okay, they were TINY and apparently INNOCENT AS DUCKLINGS. Who the hell was letting bitty beans be superheroes?! 

Ladybug looked past Maxime at Philippe and Simone, then at the wall, then backed up a stride and threw the tarp high into the air. “Miraculous Restoration!” 

The tarp burst in a bright shape, and then glowing ladybugs ( _fucking LADYBUGS, what the hell even_ ) swooped past and around Maxime… and when they were gone she was standing outside Sam's undamaged car, the bags of money gone from the backseat of said car, which was parked in front of an undamaged wall, and a very confused looking but similarly undamaged Simone and Philippe standing beside her. Ladybug lunged forward and snatched the guns away from them, shoving them onto a bench behind Chat Noir, who shifted into a guard stance. 

“What the Fffuuuudge just happened?” 

Ladybug tilted her head. “I’d thought it with your accent but that pretty much confirms it… you’re from out of Paris aren’t you?” 

“We’re from Provins,” Maxime admitted, lifting both eyebrows. “That obvious, duckling?” 

_Duckling?_ Ladybug mouthed, apparently derailed. 

“Given that THOSE idiots thought shooting me would work, and the way the Miraculous Restoration surprised you… yeah, kinda obvious,” Chat Noir offered. He looked over as a police car pulled to a stop and a portly rouget cop got out. “Hey, Officer Roger. Not gonna try and put ME in the slammer again, I hope?” 

The cop offered a sigh that was somewhere between embarrassed and regretful. “Never gonna live that down, am I?” 

“Nope!” the kid ( _because he HAD to be a kid. Why was Paris okay with KID SUPERHEROES?!_ ) chirped. He pointed at Maxime. “She was taken hostage, and the people in the bank said she tried to stop the robbery before it really got started. Right, Madame?” 

_BeepBeepBeepBlip_

Ladybug jumped, and a hand flew to her earrings. “Well, I’m sure the police have everything in hand. Time for us to go, Kitty!” 

And with that, and a nod and shooing motion from the cop, the two bounded off, within seconds out of sight. 

“…Did he just call me MADAME?” Maxime demanded and shook her head. She looked at the cop, then at the LOOK Simone was giving her, then sighed. “I’m gonna get a separate cell from them… right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit (12/12/16): The character Maxime was originally called Max. She was INTENDED to be a simple one-off/one-shot character, however she ended up being something of a fan favorite, and I loved writing her and intend to haver her come back... but this created a problem.  
> When she was a one shot, her sharing a name with an established canon character was no issue... but now that she will be showing up/reoccuring at some point in the future, readers will have the issue of seeing the name 'Max' and wondering 'Which Max'.  
> So I decided to switch from her nickname (Max) to her full name (Maxime) to hopefully cut it off at the pass. ^_^
> 
>  
> 
> Maxime, the repentant bank robber with a mouth like a sailor is a character who actually was originally less of an entity then she ended up being, indeed the original draft had this heist from LADYBUG’S point of view ( _Chat still arrived earlier, the scene started when Chat was calling LB on his baton and got run over by the car_ ). As I wrote the scene, Maxime just… starting cursing and getting up to stuff and overall being a ton of fun. She basically took the scene and ran with it. And odds are that she’ll get a cameo or two at some point in the future. Probably whenever I need someone with a mouth like a sailor again and/or a skilled driver. She, and she alone really, is the reason for the ‘foul language’ tag. Odds are if you want to see if she cameos again, just keep an eye out for the foul language tag to crop up again in future fics. ( _Oh, side note, she looks like **[N'Bushe](http://www.celeb-gossips.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/nbushe-wright-married4.jpg) [Wright](http://www.aveleyman.com/Gallery/ActorsW/20041-24082.gif)** with her hair done up in blue dreads like [**this**](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/69/f7/4e/69f74e40d7d8124dd2da7e3a4258f5a2.jpg)_ )
> 
> Edit: 1/1/17  
> As I mentioned in the end notes of last chapter, I am a patreon of [Dire](https://portentous-offerings.tumblr.com/) on [Dire's Patreon Page](https://www.patreon.com/Dire_Hard/). The perk that I am using includes a monthly request for a character done in black and white.  
> Dire (who is utterly amazing) DID A COLOR VERSION OF MAXIME... I just... wow guys, WOW. (Maxime's leather jacket is now officially a WHITE leather jacket due to this art btw)  
> LOOK AT THE AWESOMENESS!!!  
> 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, is anyone else NOT getting notification emails for comments or kudos? Out of the 8 comments I’ve gotten thus far, I’ve only gotten an email for 1 comment and 1 reply, and I’ve gotten no ‘kudos’ emails at all. Is there a setting somewhere for email notifications and I somehow turned it off?  
> Also, I’ve got a new chapter up in the Series Bible. [Chapter 4: Original Characters](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8189071/chapters/25077270), which has images and basic info on original chara in the series.

“Oooooookay, I think I got it set up right this time!”

Alya adjusted the legs of the tripod again, making sure to tighten the bolts ALL THE WAY this time. She carefully took her hands away from the device and waited, then breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened. Nodding to herself, she carefully adjusted the video camera she’d borrowed from Juleka to get the chairs lined up properly and in-focus. Finally satisfied, Alya grabbed the notepad she’d prepared and scrambled to her chair and sat dow- 

She squeaked and ran back to the camera and hit RECORD, then slunk back to her chair and plopped into it. 

Ladybug and Chat Noir both laughed, shifting their weight to get comfortable in their own chairs. Ladybug sat prim and proper, her hands on her knees as she leaned forward ever so slightly. Chat on the other hand, lounged in his chair, leaning back with a casual air, posing ‘just so’, apparently without even realizing he WAS posing. 

Alya stuck her tongue out at Chat Noir, who laughed, and shrugged at Ladybug when the red suited superhero stared between her partner and Alya in confusion. Alya put her notepad on her lap and took a slow breath in to calm down as best she could, flipping to the first page of her questions before looking back up at the two superheroes. 

“Alright. Well, to start, I just wanted to thank you both for being willing to do this interview for the Ladyblog.” 

“It’s our pleasure, Alya,” Ladybug said earnestly, and Chat Noir nodded in agreement. 

Alya blushed slightly and looked down at her notepad, re-reading the cliffnotes she’s written down for herself. “Since, um. Since this is hopefully only the first interview you do for the Ladyblog, I was hoping that we could cover a different topic each time, instead of trying to do everything at once and only getting to skim subjects?” 

“That sounds like a good plan to me,” Chat offered, glancing over at Ladybug to give her the final say in the matter. 

Ladybug considered that for a moment, before finally nodding. “I don’t want these to be… too regular, though. That wouldn’t be safe. But I think… if we change the location, and time of the week for each session so that we don’t have to worry about an Akumatized victim ambushing us, it should be alright.” 

Alya’s eyes widened. She hadn’t even THOUGHT about the fact that regular interviews might lead to Papillon setting up an ambush. “That… That sounds good. I’ll keep recording the interviews instead of livestreaming them, that way no one can trace the signal during an interview.” 

“Oooo, a smart one,” Chat said, smirking. “I like her. Can we keep her, My Lady?” 

Ladybug huffed at her partner, who just smiled back at her, unabashed. “What would you like to talk about for this first interview, Alya?” Ladybug asked, purposefully turning her attention from Chat Noir. 

Alya swallowed a giggle at Chat’s antics and glanced at her notepad again to double check before looking up. “I was hoping we could talk about the Miraculous Restoration?” 

It had seemed to be a safe topic when Alya had been figuring out how to do these interviews over the weekend with Adrien. Well, she had gone over her plans for the interview, Adrien had double checked her math and work on her physics project… while acting as a sounding board for an increasingly excited Alya. Both of them had agreed that posting information that Papillon might not know was a BAD idea, so Alya had come up with a list of questions that she wanted to know the answers to, and Adrien had gone over the list to see if the questions were ACTUALLY safe to ask on Saturday evening before he’d left to go home. 

Ladybug blinked a few times, then slowly nodded. “That… That actually is something I’ve wanted to talk to… to the people of Paris about. And it’s something that we CAN talk about without worrying about giving Papillon information he can use against us. Papillon obviously knows a lot about how the Miraculous Restoration works, in fact he sometimes seems to RELY on it as much as we do. Good choice, Alya.” 

Alya beamed. “Thank you, Ladybug.” She shuffled through her notes until she found her list of questions about the Miraculous Restoration and then looked up. “The first question is; What exactly IS the Miraculous Restoration? We know that it repairs things, and heals people… resets everything, I guess you could say, but what exactly IS it?” 

“It’s… well, ‘reset’ is actually a really good choice of words,” Ladybug said. “It’s focused creative magic and good luck.” Ladybug smiled, imagining what it would have been like even a year ago to talk about magic and luck and be SERIOUS about it. “It repairs, undoes really, any damage done by myself, Chat Noir or whomever we were fighting… and heals any injuries received during or because of the fight.” 

“It can even bring people back to life,” Chat Noir put in, losing his smile for a moment. 

Ladybug glanced at him, frowning. “We don’t know that for certain, Chat.” 

Chat Noir shook his head. “No, Ladybug. We do.” His eyes flicked from some spot on the far wall, to Ladybug and then back again, the leather armored hero shifting in his seat as if uncomfortable. “But it…” he broke off, and then shook his head. “They have to die DURING the battle, and they can’t have been... dying slow or from injuries before the battle either.” Seeing the worried frown on Ladybug’s face, Chat Noir tried for a smile. “If you get killed during a battle, because of something one of us, or whoever we’re fighting does… the Restoration will bring you back. It’s not fun, but it works.” 

Ladybug’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean ‘it’s not fun’?” 

“Nothing!” Chat yelped. “I mean… well, it can’t be, right? Dying would not be good, so it would not be fun to have been dead. Right?” Chat Noir ducked away from the look Ladybug was aiming his way. “I… I talked to some doctors, after Madame Mort? I wanted…” he shrugged. “Dr. Martin, the doctor who was Akumatized into Madame Mort, said that there were a few people who the Restoration saved on the table, even though they hadn’t been involved in the battle… but there were a lot more who… weren’t. A lot of doctors, and nurses and hospital staff have been comparing notes and figured out a lot more than we have about that. She also said that there were a LOT more people coming into the hospital from what she called ‘YOLO Sickness’.” 

Ladybug aimed a look at Chat Noir that said, in no uncertain terms, that they would be TALKING ABOUT THIS, later. 

“What’s YOLO Sickness?” Alya asked, even as she scribbled a note to call the hospital to see if she could talk to Dr. Martin to get more information about what the various Doctors and Nurses and staff had figured out and post it to the Ladyblog in a document or the like. …and scribbled a note to find Chat Noir sometime later and find out EXACTLY what he meant by ‘dying wasn’t fun’. 

“People doing stupid stuff.” 

Ladybug’s eyes widened. “It’s happening often enough that the Hospitals noticed it?” 

Chat nodded. 

“What’s happening enough? How are people being stupid?” 

Ladybug groaned and tugged at her pigtails, then looked to Alya. “Chat and I have noticed people taking more risks, doing things they usually wouldn’t, especially during battles, but sometimes on patrol too.” She waved a hand, trying to define the shape of the thought in front of her. “Like… jumping out of trees, or driving their cars off makeshift ramps and trying to land on a roof, or a lot of other ‘Darwin Award’ worthy stuff.” 

“Like the guy who decided to see if the ‘personal jet pack’ would work by jumping off the top of the Eiffel tower?” Alya asked. 

Ladybug nodded. “People have figured out mostly what the Miraculous Restoration does-” 

“-But not enough,” Chat finished. 

“So they’re doing risky stuff, thinking everything will be fixed or ‘reset’… And sometimes doing stuff even when there ISN’T an akuma because they think, I guess, that it’ll get reset anyway. So, this-” she waved at Alya and the video camera, “Might help drop the amount of times this sort of thing HAPPENS, because the information is OUT THERE and people will know it.” 

“And stop doing stupid stuff. Or at least do it LESS,” Chat Noir said with a firm nod. 

“So the Miraculous Restoration repairs damage so long as it’s caused by an Akuma or by you fighting an Akuma, and can even bring people back from the dead, BUT it only will work on things caused by the fight?” 

“Well… I’ve used it once or twice when we’ve, Chat and I, helped police fight normal criminals. Like before we came for the interview, we saw some armed robbers attacking a bank, and since they drove into a wall with their car, I used the Miraculous Restoration and the people that had gotten injured, the wall that was destroyed, everything stolen… all of that got fixed.” 

“Which kinda proved a theory of mine,” Chat cut in. “I mean of ours, ‘cause we both have talked about it. …It isn’t the Akumas, it’s the BATTLES. The Miraculous Restoration is tied to battles that we fight… ‘s long as the Charm is summoned during or really close to the fight, the Restoration will reset anything that went down during THAT BATTLE.” 

Ladybug nodded, taking up the thread. “I’ve used Miraculous Restoration a few times when there wasn’t an Akuma, but only a few times have I summoned the Charm specifically to call the Restoration instead of to try and use the Lucky Charm during… whatever was happening. I’ve talked to… an- an ADVISOR about the Miraculous Restoration and Ti- …the advisor said that Akumas are actually really rare, and the Miraculous Restoration wasn’t designed with battling Akumas in mind… it was designed with just… battle and the aftermath in mind.” 

“Designed?” 

Ladybug shrugged. “My source was not forthcoming about THAT part.” 

“Fair enough,” Alya admitted with a smile. “Ummm, anything else I should be asking?” 

Ladybug shook her head. “I don’t think so. Chat?” 

Chat Noir winced. “Yeah, actually. Alya, you know how there wasn’t much coverage about whoever was Akumatized to create Mnemosyne? …There… there was a reason for that. I’m not gonna say the woman’s real name, cause privacy and stuff, but…” Chat glanced at Ladybug as if asking for help. 

“The woman who Papillon Akumatized into Mnemosyne had… HAS… Alzheimers. Advanced enough that she has been living at a nursing home for a few months now, but she somehow snuck out of the Nursing home and ended up in the Business District, I think one of her caretakers said she used to work at one of the office buildings or something. We think that’s why she had memory powers.” 

“The Miraculous Restoration didn’t… didn’t fix her mind,” Chat said quietly. “She still has Alzheimers, she’s still gonna keep losing more and more of herself every day.” 

Ladybug sighed sadly. “The Miraculous Restoration doesn’t do ANYTHING for pre-existing injuries or diseases… and on top of that, it doesn’t do anything to people’s memories… good or bad, you’re going to remember everything that happened to you.” 

Alya frowned. “I don’t remember my time as Lady Wifi though? I mean I… I remember Papillon making the offer, him calling me Lady Wifi but- there’s the offer and then I was suddenly on the roof of Le Grande Paris.” 

“That’s actually because of the Akumas, not the Miraculous Restoration,” Chat offered. “The Akumas-” he broke off, jumping where he sat, when his ring beeped suddenly. Both he and Ladybug stared down at it in confusion. “Uh.” 

“Chat, how long were you transformed before we fought those robbers?” 

“Not… that long? I mean I was on patrol, but…” 

Ladybug sighed. “I think we’re going to have to end the interview there, Alya. I’ll contact you to set up the next interview?” 

“Sorry!” Chat Noir offered. 

Alya smiled. “No, it’s cool. Maybe we can talk about Akumas and stuff next time?” 

“We can’t reveal all we know about them,” Ladybug warned. 

“It’ll be fine, honest! Thank you both SO MUCH for this!” 

Chat offered a smirk and his usual two finger salute, then jumped when his ring beeped again and beat a hasty retreat, to the snickering amusement of both Ladybug and Alya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plagg didn’t want Adrien to start talking about Akumas and his thoughts on them until A: Plagg got a chance to talk to Adrien about it and B: Chat and Ladybug got a chance to hash out what they’re willing to let Papillon know that THEY know… so Plagg started the power-down sequence.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> The duo do not bring up the fact that Ladybug needs to summon a Lucky Charm in order to ACTIVATE the Restoration specifically because they don’t know if PAPILLON is aware of that limit and on the off chance that he is unaware, they don’t want to give him more ammunition. They also are concerned about people trying to force Ladybug to summon a Lucky Charm for… well, a variety of reasons… and/or people trying to stop her from summoning it.
> 
> The ‘Reset’ is… a very POWERFUL ability in canon, and yet at the same time it’s very LIMITED and as a result it balances Cataclysm very well. It’s primary limit (in canon) seems to be that it only repairs things that occurred during (or directly because of) the battle between the heroes and the villains. MOST of the time, things that are damaged beforehand remain damaged (Alya’s phone in The Mime for example, a few other instances) and Mari seems to have NO control over what occurs/is done beyond activating it. That is a POWERFUL limit on what would otherwise be major Dues ex Machina. 
> 
> That said, given that we’re TOLD that the Butterfly Miraculous is NOT the only issue that the Miraculous Wielders have faced/dealt with in the show… or at the very least it’s strongly hinted that the ‘monsters’ we see in the Origins animatic were not Akumatized Champions but something else, and Nooroo’s reaction to what Papillon intends states FLAT OUT that the Butterfly is NOT MEANT to be used this way…
> 
> And I’m sorry, but you do not create the ability to create super-soldiers unless you have a NEED for said super-powered warriors… which is another tick in the ‘there’s something else out there’. These items managed to capture and bind GODS to the whims of otherwise normal people. TEENAGERS in this case (yes, teenagers who have reached the age of consent/majority in France, but TEENAGERS NONE THE LESS). Nooroo makes it obvious that the Kwamis are literally BOUND INTO OBEDIANCE by the Miraculous Stones. They can literally do nothing but provide all the aid, and information and etcetera that their Weilder demands.
> 
>  **GODS**.
> 
> Tikki and Plagg are the gods of freaking CREATION AND DESTRUCTION. They’re probably responsible for the freaking CREATION OF THE EARTH and the major EXTINCTION EVENTS.  
> AND THEY’RE BOUND TO A SET OF EARRINGS AND A RING, and whims of whomever PUT THE DAMN THINGS ON!!  
> You do not create something THAT POWERFUL unless you have a VERY GOOD REASON. Maybe Tikki and Plagg were bound before the others were made and something they did opened the door for the ‘monsters’ we see previous Miraculous Wielders fighting in the Origins animatic. Maybe the others were made to try and act as a control ON said lead duo (they aren’t as powerful but by golly an EXPERIENCED weilder of a ‘lesser’ Miraculous could likely take down/stop an inexperienced but ‘evil’ Ladybug or Black Cat)  
> …Actually the Butterfly being designed as a stop-gag who really CAN hold against the ‘lead’ duo does make sense. …Not enough for it to be the ONLY REASON, but a factor. Odds are the Butterfly usually provides soldiers in normal war or in combat against ‘monsters/the darkness/primordial/whathaveyou’ with an added stipulation of ‘best dude to go to when a Ladybug or Black Cat go deep-end’.
> 
> Which all leads back to the Miraculous Restoration. While Ladybug’s ‘de-evilise’ seems to be focused on purifying Akumas, her Lucky Charm and Restoration seem to be more ‘all purpose’, which is the direction I decided to go in… basically the Restoration is an all-purpose ability that does exactly what Ladybug says… it undoes the effects and aftermath of super powered beings battling… restoring allies, neutrals and even enemies.
> 
> …Also, how often is the Butterfly Miraculous misused that one of the TWO MOST POWERFUL Miraculous Wielders has an ability specifically designed to shut down/stop Akumas? …Maybe there’s a reason it was apparently ‘lost’.  
> Seriously, de-evilize is apparently specifically to capture/purify akumas… akumas that only Papillon can use. WOW that’s an oddly specific skillset.
> 
>  
> 
> Edit: Wren Truesong asked SO...  
> Please read the comments below to see what a 'stop-gag' is and why I use it ^^;; Basically, it's a net/leash that functions as a control on something or someone, a term my maternal grandfather came up with during WWII and the usage spread to the rest of my extended family


	4. Chapter 4

“What’s wrong, Marinette?”

Marinette sighed, plopping into her chair and letting it spin her around a few times before resting her elbows on her table and plunking her chin onto her hands. “I don’t know, Tikki.” 

The tiny crimson Kwami flew over and gently hugged Marinette’s cheek. “You can tell me, Marinette. I know something’s wrong, just tell me what it is so I can help!” 

Marinette smiled at that, then looked at her computer. 

Her brand new computer. She looked at the new sewing machine and leaned back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling, sighing sadly. 

“Tikki?” 

“Yes, Marinette?” 

“What Chat said during the interview. You don’t think he’s… I mean Alya said his heart stopped for a bit after Madame Mort but… he…” Marinette groaned and buried her face in her hands. Stupid cat, making her worry. “He had to have been talking about dying and being brought back in GENERAL terms. Not from experience. Right? 

Tikki didn’t answer, and Marinette groaned and spun her chair around, trying to make the thoughts go away. She finally stopped, dizzy, and stared up at the ceiling. Stupid, stupid cat. Making her worry for no reason. 

Probably no reason. 

…She really hoped it was for no reason. 

“Yesterday, when I lost my memories… You said that Chat-” she bit her lip, trying to figure out how to phrase it. “That he said the same thing he said at the Eiffel Tower, that he wants to talk about things.” 

Tikki hesitated, but then she landed on Marinette’s shoulder. “Yes.” 

“Did he… what things?” 

Tikki considered for a minute, then looked at Marinette. “You were… very sad, and a bit scared, about how you wouldn’t remember what happened last night when you got your normal memories back. Chat was very kind and helped you feel better, but he… he mentioned how the Akumas stealing his memories and will from him had happened to him and he… I think it hurts him more than he’s admitted to Ladybug. …More than I’d realized.” 

The last was a soft, sad, admission, the Kwami staring sadly down at the floor, her antennae drooping. 

“The Black Cat protects the Ladybug. It’s… always been that way. We can bring them back if they fall, heal them if they’re injured, undo damage and harm done… So long as we stand, the Black Cat returns.” Tikki sighed. 

Marinette scooped Tikki up and into her palms, cuddling her close. 

“I think that he really DOES need to talk about it. We’re supposed to heal the Black Cat and right now, he’s injured. But before you talk to him, you have to…” Tikki trailed off. “You have to look at what happened, see how both of you tie into it, and sort out how YOU FEEL about it. You have to address it, and analyze it, before you try to help him. Because if you go in without doing that, you’ll both get derailed and that… this is a deep pain for both of you, and if YOU don’t start the healing of yourself first, you can’t heal him.” 

Marinette was quiet, considering that. She got to her feet and walked over to her chaise, snuggling up against the back, Tikki held close. 

In order to heal someone else, you had to at least start the healing process yourself. 

“The first time he lost his will was when he took a hit for me,” Marinette said, and Tikki nodded. “The exact same way… and reason… that I… I lost him to Timebreaker.” 

She still hated to think about Timebreaker, still hated it when Chat would grab her and take a blow rather than her. Could still remember his arms around her, his legs braced as he’d tried to leap them both away- of him fading further and further away. 

“It… was scary. When Dislocœur was- I dunno, influencing him?” 

“Dislocœur… skewed people’s perceptions,” Tikki said quietly. “The stronger their love, the stronger the hate. It could be any type of love. A parent’s love for their children, a sister’s love for their brother, a friend’s love for their friend-” 

“Alya.” 

Tikki nodded. “A person’s love for a place, or an ideal… and of course, romantic love.” 

“Chat hated Paris, and he hated me.” 

Tikki again nodded. “Dislocœur also-” she paused, considering. “Dislocœur’s arrows didn’t just turn love to hate, they impacted people’s emotional control and their… logic. It was a lot like what Akumas do to people… Everything was blown out of proportion and they were operating almost on dream logic.” 

Marinette blinked, and thought about what Chat, what everyone who had been hit by Dislocœur’s arrows, had done. That for them it had been the logic of a dream, with hate burning in their hearts. …Suddenly many of the stranger things from that day made sense. 

“That’s why Chat worked with Dislocœur? Why he reacted so… why he was AFRAID of me when I went to kiss him? Why he was willing to use Cataclysm? Dream logic?” 

Tikki nodded. 

Marinette considered that carefully, then slowly nodded. That… that made sense, and it made that whole mess; of fighting Chat Noir, of how close he’d come to hitting her, less- less horrible. She suddenly frowned down at Tikki. “I threw him at Dislocœur, and he only destroyed the SASH, even though his hand hit Dislocœur’s chest too.” 

Tikki tilted her head. “Yes?” 

“…If he had caught me… would he have only destroyed my mask? He still wanted to know who I was, he said as much when he had me pinned. If it was dream logic-” 

Tikki smiled. “I don’t know for certain, but I think that might have been what happened. Chat Noir doesn’t want to kill, he doesn’t like hurting people-not really. I think if you hadn’t dodged he would have subconsciously destroyed your mask and the Glamour, not YOU. Cataclysm can disrupt and destroy both energy and magic, just as it can disrupt and destroy physical objects after all.” She tilted her head. “I might be wrong, but it’s what I think, and hope, to have been the case.” 

Marinette smiled. That… made her feel a lot better about all of that. …and maybe it would make Chat feel better too. 

“Princess Fragrance wasn’t him taking a hit for me, but… I should have been there. I should have taken you to the healer right away, even if I would have gotten in trouble at school. You’re more important than school. Being able to BE Ladybug when people need me is more important. Chat had to work alone, and neither of us do well alone.” 

“You don’t,” Tikki agreed. “And despite what you said when you both were fighting Copycat, you aren’t BETTER than him, you’re his equal.” 

“And he’s mine,” Marinette said, nodding firmly. “Different but equal. …but I’m still in charge.” 

Tikki giggled. “Chat has never said otherwise, now has he? He follows your lead happily. He knows you’re the strategist.” 

Marinette smiled, then giggled as well. “I should tell him what a nice singing voice he has. Do you think that would help?” 

Tikki smiled up at Marinette. “It couldn’t hurt!” she chirped. 

“…I should have tried harder to get the Chat Noir doll from the Puppeteer. I could have tried to lasso his doll at the same time I got mine-” 

“No, Marinette. You weren’t expecting to get Paused, you were going to get his doll the second you had yours. You were scared about being controlled, and that’s okay!” 

“…but he was scared too.” Marinette sighed. “No. He was TERRIFIED. And he had every right to be, he’d been controlled twice before!” She flopped onto her side on the chaise, curling up, still cuddling Tikki close. “I was scared and not thinking straight. First it was just that Chat was in my room and would see my pictures of Adrien and I didn’t want him to make fun of me-” 

“Oh, Marinette…” 

“I know. I should have focused on getting the dolls and stopping Lady Wifi, not sent him away to break the signal-” Marinette sat up sharply. “Wait, how did he know where that WAS?” 

“Well, he HAS been to your house before.” 

Marinette yelped. “What?” 

Tikki’s eyes went wide. “Uh. I mean-. Evillustrator.” Tikki nodded sagely. “And I think he passes by your house occasionally on his patrols, since he knows you– after the whole teaming up business.” That was Tikki’s excuse and she was sticking to it. 

Marinette eyed Tikki, who just stared back at her calmly. “Fine,” Marinette huffed. Suddenly she flopped back onto the chaise, covering her face in her hands, leaving Tikki to catch herself and hover in midair. “I’m an IDIOT!” 

“What? No you’re n-” 

“I really am!” 

“What?” 

“I sent Chat off so he could recharge his Kwami… I could have hidden my doll somewhere in the house, or in the park… or even ripped it to pieces! I could have had CHAT help me rip it to little bits before he left. No doll, no fear of being controlled!” Marinette groaned into her hands. “I still have the fabric I used for the doll, I could have rolled it up so it would trick them into thinking I still had it long enough to DO something. The only reason I waited till Chat got to the studio was because I wanted him to guard my back so MY doll wouldn’t get snatched.” 

Marinette grabbed the throw pillow from her chaise and buried her face in it to muffle her scream as she kicked her feet. Tikki watched and waited until Marinette was done to land beside Marinette’s head and gently pat the girl’s temple. 

“If I’d just THOUGHT for HALF A SECOND… UGH!” Marinette let the pillow drop to the side and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. “…I shouldn’t have waited for Chat to get there. I knew they had the doll, I knew Manon was about to use it to control Chat… I should have gone in, gotten the doll and then RUN FOR IT and met up with Chat.” 

“It’s alright that you didn’t think of it, Marinette. You were really scared and no one thinks straight when they’re scared.” 

“But Chat was scared too, Tikki. …and he trusted me to do everything I could to protect him, and I didn’t because *I* was scared, and he had to SEE the doll being spelled and…” Marinette wrapped her arms around herself, hugging the throw pillow close to her chest. “I never really- I can’t even imagine what that would have been like Tikki. He SAW his will and mind being stolen and he TRIED to make it and he couldn’t, and it’s my fault because I was too scared to think straight or do something that would put ME at risk.” 

“Oh, Marinette, no!” Tikki hugged Marinette’s cheek, then reached up and gently brushed Marinette’s tears away with a gentle paw. “No, it’s okay. You’re still young, and you were scared and of course you can think of what you ‘should have done’ NOW… It’s been almost two months! Chat Noir DOESN’T BLAME YOU for what happened! You know he doesn’t!” 

“But maybe he should,” Marinette sniffed, scrubbing her face with the heel of her hand. 

“No. He shouldn’t, and he doesn’t, and he never will. He didn’t think of destroying the doll either, now did he?” 

“No,” Marinette admitted. “But he… I’m the strategist. Chat’s better at long-lasting effects or ‘in the future’ stuff like setting up patrols but… battle is all me. Chat just gets all discombobulated.” 

“And that’s why he trusts you, and why he’s never blamed you. Something bad happened, but it came out alright in the end, and look!” Tikki smiled. “Now you’re going to do something to help him heal! So he’ll feel better and if something like this happens again… well, you’ll know what to do, and you won’t panic like you did that time, now will you?” 

Marinette shook her head. 

“And you’ll know how scared Chat is of someone stealing his will from him again, so you’ll work harder to protect him, right?” 

Marinette nodded firmly. 

“You’ve started healing YOUR wounds, and now you have a plan for how to help Chat with HIS wounds, and how to help him if something like this happens again. That’s the first step!” 

“What’s the second?” 

Tikki’s smile took on a sad tinge. “Following through.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Tikki tells Marinette, that in order to help others heal you have to at least start the healing process for yourself is true, if simplified. You don’t have to be a perfect person, or in a perfectly Zen place to help other people. You don’t even have to love yourself ( _although it helps to not hate yourself_ ) and you don’t have to have all the answers.  
>    
> But you do have to have at least addressed how whatever you’re trying to help someone else with has affected YOU. And you need to do it before you try to help the other person, because otherwise you’ll be helping the person and all of a sudden a part of your brain will go ‘well wait, what about me. I got messed up by that too!’
> 
> It doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you HUMAN.
> 
> Marinette is, with Tikki’s guidance, doing something very adult and very healthy here. She’s hashing out a very complex and emotional set of situations and bleeding any poison out NOW, as well as making realizations that will help her be more grounded ( _and less likely to be caught flat-footed_ ) when she goes to help her friend.
> 
> The reason for this is so that when you go to help this friend/other person, you don’t make it about YOU. By addressing your worries and fears and issues before hand, you can focus on the person you’re trying to help- keep it about them.
> 
> Discussing WITH them how it impacted you, and how you feel, and how things will be between you can come later, after they’ve gotten to a place where the healing has at least started.
> 
> Now if that person does what you did ( _at least getting the healing process started/addressing the issues_ ) on their own as well, THEN you can talk about how things were impacted between you both… it can be about you AND them AND ‘both of us’.
> 
> Marinette WAS HURT, emotionally and to an extent physically and mentally by Chat the three times he was controlled by an Akuma. By talking to Tikki about these events now, she gets healing and catharsis. Tikki understands, and listens, and explains things and gives her hope. Now that Marinette can actually think and talk clearly about these rather traumatic events ( _and knows that she can go and talk to Tikki the next time she needs to_ ) she can help Chat.
> 
> Tikki has already started her healing process from those events, and thus this talk with Marinette is all about MARINETTE, not Tikki. Yes, they’re talking about Chat, but all of what they say is about how Marinette felt during them. Her fears, her realizations, her thoughts.
> 
> Selfish is not ‘this hurt me too’ and wanting to talk about that.
> 
> Selfish is ‘this only hurt me, not you’ and refusing to let the other person heal.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> I just wanted to state that while I know many people enjoy the Alya/Marinette ship, I do not personally ship them romantically, thus Marinette and Tikki’s line about the love between friends. To me they are best friends, almost sisters. There is love between them ( _if there was not, Dislocœur’s arrows would have done nothing_ ), but, for me, it FRATERNAL love and PLATONIC love, not romantic.
> 
> If someone else sees it as romantic in canon, hey- that’s your call ^_^
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading fics and finding art with your preferred headcanon as I’m a strong believer in ‘every ship is valid’! Just because it isn’t my headcanon does not mean YOUR headcanon is any less valid. ^^
> 
> My headcanon is friends/sisters, which is what will be showing up here. ( _Nino and Adrien are the same- friends/sibs- to me, BTW_ )


	5. Chapter 5

It could not be delayed anymore.

“Nooroo. Transform me!” The Akumas took wing, swirling into a maelstrom around him even as Nooroo was drawn, ever unwillingly, into the brooch. And the moment the Kwami entered and powered the brooch, the Akumas landed upon him, shielding him from the world for one instant beneath rustling white wings… before bursting away to flutter in gentle orbit around Papillon. 

Papillon breathed deep, and opened his eyes, and held out a hand. “And now, an experiment that, if successful, should prove most fruitful.” An Akuma landed on his palm and Papillon rested his other hand in a gentle dome over the Akuma, charging it with dark energy until it’s once white wings became a char black, only flickers of it’s true purple managing to shine through the cracks. 

Papillon released the Akuma and leaned back, resting his hands on his cane before him as he watched it leave. “Fly away, my evil little Akuma, and lie in wait until I call for you.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“Marinette? …MARINEEEEeeeeeeEEEETTE! …Marinette, did you forget to set your alarm AGAIN?” 

The mound of duvet on the bed shifted and moaned softly, and Sabine sighed, hands on her hips. “Marinette.” 

“mmmuuMmmmmmuh?” 

“You do know it’s Monday, yes?” 

“‘s S’nday, Mam’n,” the lump on the loft mumbled. 

“No, dear, it’s Monday. …and you have twenty minutes before school starts.” 

“…‘s plenty time…” 

Sabine sighed and waited, counting down slowly… and sure enough, just as she hit five- 

“Oh NO!!!” 

The lump of duvet exploded as Marinette tried to get to her feet, roll out of bed and run down the stairs of the loft all at the same time. Sabine waited to be certain that her daughter hadn’t hurt herself, and then headed down the stairs to give Marinette some privacy. “I’ll have a ‘to go’ breakfast waiting for you, Marinette, you just get ready.” 

“ThankYouMamanILoveYouYou’reTheBestI’llBeReadyInFiveMinutesHonest!!” 

Sabine’s laugh drifted up through the open trapdoor in answer. 

Marinette shucked off her nightgown and grabbed the first clean shirt and pants she could find, dragging them on as she hopped, first on one leg, then the other, to her washstand. Buttoning up her pants, she turned on the water for a second, just enough to splash her face and get the sleep out of her eyes, then glanced at herself in the mirror. 

No makeup, clothes were a bit wrinkled ( _they… were clean, right? She took a quick sniff of her shoulder and it SMELLED alright…_ ) and hair unbrushed, still in the pigtails she’d fallen asleep in and more than a little bushy. 

“…Whatever.” 

Grabbing her ballet slippers in one hand, she ran for the trapdoor and thundered down the stairs. 

… 

And then thundered back up to grab her backpack and purse, dragging her slippers on as Tikki phased into her purse. 

Less than ten minutes later, Marinette was out the front door and racing towards school as fast as her feet would take her. 

“Why am I always LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE?!?” She wailed as she tore up the stairs ( _the EMPTY stairs_ ) and through the courtyard ( _also empty_ ) and into Mademoiselle Bustier’s class ( _not empty at ALL, of course_ ). 

The bell hadn’t rung yet. As long as she was IN HER SEAT before it rang she’d be fi-! 

She over judged the first step and her foot hit the very edge of the second step, and slipped right off it, and Marinette pitched forward with a scream, trying to get her arms up to save herself as the ground rushed up far, far, too fast at her. 

And stopped. 

Marinette blinked. 

She glanced down at her chest, where an arm was wrapped around her, holding her up. 

Before she could fully process what had just happened, she was swung up and around in a single smooth motion and plopped into her seat just as the bell rang. 

Adrien sat down in front of her, and Nino grabbed the blond’s shoulder and shook it. “NICE SAVE, bro!” 

Marinette squeaked. ADRIEN had caught her!? 

“Well, that was quite the eventful start of the day,” Mademoiselle Bustier said from the front of the room, smiling. She picked her tablet off the desk and swiped the screen, then typed in her passcode to activate it. “Now that everyone is here and ready-” 

Marinette’s face and ears burned in a blush and the noirette buried her face in her arms on her desk with another squeak. 

“-we can talk about your final term project for this year!” 

Marinette’s head snapped back up. Final project!? 

“I realize that we’re starting a bit later than usual for a term project, however this school year has… been an interesting one for all of us. Since we’re starting the term project the third week of term instead of the first, I’ve decided to make it an easier one than usual, and I’ll be breaking you all into groups of 2 instead of having you work solo to try and make it a bit easier on all of you.” 

That was fair enough. 

“The teams are; Juleka & Rose, Adrien & Nino, Ivan & Mylène, Kim & Max, Nathanaël & Alix, Chloé & Sabrina and Marinette & Alya. As we’ll be focusing on this project for the rest of the term, if anyone wants to change their seat to sit next to their partner they can, although it isn’t required.” 

Mylène glanced at Alix, who smiled broadly at made a small shooing motion. Giggling, Mylène grabbed her backpack and moved up the steps and sat herself down next to Ivan with a happy smile while Ivan blushed mightily. 

Nathanaël ducked further into his own seat when Alix turned to look at him. Alix huffed and considered for a minute, then grabbed her own backpack and jogged up and around and sat down behind Mylène and beside Nathanaël. The two studied each other for a minute, then Alix stuck her hand out. Nathanaël stared at it for a minute, then cautiously reached out and took it. Alix gave it a solid shake, then turned her attention to Miss Bustier. 

Marinette glanced at Alya, who smiled back with a nod. They had this project in the bag, whatever it was. Marinette looked forward… and found Chloé turned in her seat, glaring at her. 

Marinette glared right back, setting her jaw as she locked eyes with Chloé. 

Chloé’s gaze darted from Marinette to Adrien, then back to Marinette before the blonde huffed and tossed her ponytail back with one hand, pointedly turning her back on Marinette and turning to talk to Sabrina. 

Mademoiselle Bustier put her tablet down and picked up a thick stacks of papers and walked up the center aisle, handing each student a thick sheaf of paper. “Now, let me tell all of you about your final project for the year.” 

Marinette saw Chloé turn her nose up at her papers, arms crossing, while Sabrina began reading with a determined expression. 

“And of course Chloé’s going to cheat and just let Sabrina do all her work, LIKE USUAL,” Marinette grumbled. 

…Apparently louder than she’d meant to, as she was suddenly the focus of the entire classroom. 

“How dare you say that!” Chloé snapped, getting to her feet to glare at Marinette. 

Both Adrien and Sabrina made calming gestures with their hands in perfect, unwitting, sync – and Nino groaned and buried his face in his arms. “Bro, she NEVER listens to you.” 

Normally, Marinette would back down rather than start a confrontation in class, but today she was tired and wrung out from the long night talking about… Ladybug and Chat Noir things… with Tikki. 

She surged to her feet and slapped both hands down on her table, making everyone jump. “The only thing that lets evil prevail is the inaction of good men!” 

“I am NOT EVIL!” Chloé snapped, stomping her foot on the ground. 

“All of the Akumas YOU created say otherwise!” 

The room went silent, everyone seeming to hold their breath, staring at Marinette in wide-eyed shock. The only sound Marinette could hear was the blood rushing in her ears, and a faint rustling whisper somewhere to her right. 

She hadn’t… she hadn’t meant to say that. 

“Marinette!” 

She jumped, then slowly turned to face Mademoiselle Bustier, who was glaring at her with a thunderous expression. The teacher looked from Chloé to Marinette, then put the last sheaves of paper down by Alix and Nathanaël. 

“I-” 

“…Chloé. You will be working with Alya for the final term project. Marinette, you will be working with Sabrina.” 

Both girls started to argue, Alya and Sabrina quickly adding their voices to the rising chaos- 

Which cut off the instant Mademoiselle Bustier raised her hand. “No. Marinette, you obviously feel VERY strongly about the situation-” 

Marinette ducked at that. 

“So this will prevent what you were so concerned about. BOTH of you sit down. This re-assignment is non-negotiable.” 

At the window, dark wings rustled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so… being guilty for causing Akumas and why Mari WENT THERE.
> 
> A: Marinette has Akumas on her mind at the moment due to the rather intense discussion she and Tikki had last night  
> B: Marinette and Chloé have years of bad blood between them, and both have made NASTY accusations at each other in canon.  
> C: I did not realize until I wrote this chapter just HOW MANY Akumas Marinette was tied to ( _mostly indirectly, but WOW. Also, despite the fandom theory that Marinette goes and tries to help EVERYONE… She actually only actively tries to help Ivan and Juleka, her ‘help’ for Mylène was more a ‘where is she’ due to being distracted by what else was going on-and almost getting to kiss Adrien, and while she followed after Alix she wasn’t helping much-in part due to her Dad phoning her. Everyone else she gives sympathetic looks to, but doesn’t DO anything which, hey, teenage girl, she’s MORTAL. Also surprisingly absent in fan theories is that other characters try to help as well-Ivan trying to make Mylène feel better, Rose trying to help Juleka, etc_ ). 
> 
> Now on the topic of ‘causing Akumas’… let’s look at that, shall we?
> 
> Chloé is DIRECTLY responsible for 7 Akumas ( _and indirectly responsible for 4_ ), giving her a total of 11 Akumas.  
> Marinette is DIRECTLY responsible for 3 Akumas ( _and indirectly responsible for 6_ ), giving her a total of 9 Akumas ( _also making her second in ‘ranking’ behind Chloé_ )  
> Alec Cataldi is DIRECTLY responsible for 2 Akumas ( _and indirectly responsible for 1_ ), giving him a total of 3 Akumas ( _also making him third in ‘ranking’ after Marinette_ )  
> Adrien is DIRECTLY responsible for 1 Akuma ( _and indirectly responsible for 2_ ), giving him a total of 3 Akumas ( _Also making him fourth in ‘ranking’ after Alec_ )
> 
> Everyone else is 2 or less, so far as we know.  
>  
> 
> Please check [Chapter 5: Those Who Cause Akumatizations](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8189071/chapters/19487950) of the Series Bible to see the table of Akumas and who caused them for further discussion ( _should you wish to discuss, that is^^_ )
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
>  ~~…Hey. Off topic but… where the hell does Papillon’s staff go when he’s charging the Akumas? I mean is he holding it under his arm, is he leaning it against his hip, did he stuff it into his belt, is it just FLOATING IN MIDAIR?! We can see both hands, he is NOT HOLDING THE DARN THING! WHERE DOES IT GO!?~~ Edit: Okay so I finally figured out that he's just holding it tucked under his arm while he charges the Akumas.


	6. Chapter 6

Marinette slunk down the stairs of the school, trying to avoid everyone’s gaze. Alya walked alongside her, one arm thrown over Marinette’s shoulder, glaring at anyone who looked like they were about to start something. “I can’t believe I said that,” Marinette admitted as they walked towards her home.

“I can’t believe it either,” Alya said. “I mean on one hand… Chloé. So she kinda deserved it, but-” 

“No, she didn’t,” Marinette sighed. “I mean, yeah, she’s caused a lot of Akumas, but…” Well, so had Marinette herself, although several of them had been caused as Ladybug, in all fairness. Only eight or so to Chloé’s elevenish, but… that was still a lot. 

“She’s never going to change if no one calls her on her bull,” Alya pointed out. 

Marinette kicked a small stone, watching it skitter ahead of them. “I know. But I don’t think that what I did was the right way to call her on it.” 

“…Probably not,” Alya admitted. She shook Marinette’s shoulders. “Come on. Let’s go eat lunch, and then there’s something really important I need to talk about to you.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“The experiment seems to be successful thus far, Master,” Nooroo offered cautiously as she tilted the can to sip at the wonderful wonderful ‘nectar’ within. She closed her eyes and fluttered her wings for a moment. No matter what else happened, no matter what other horrors she would be forced to be part of, she had discovered Red Bull and that made it all at least a LITTLE better. 

“Hmmm?” Her Master looked up from his computer, then focused. “Nooroo, can you still sense the Akuma?” 

“Yes, Master.” 

“It has remained at the school and hidden?” 

Nooroo nodded and took another sip of her Red Bull before answering. “Yes, Master. The Akuma are… while not truly thinking beings like humans or Kwamis, still possess a type of intelligence. Enough to navigate the world to find that which you ask them to seek, enough to follow simple instructions.” 

“Ah, good.” He returned his attention to the computer screen, then leaned back and looked at Nooroo. “Nooroo, I would like to discuss-” he held up a hand when she started to straighten her can. “When you are done. There is no immediate rush. We must wait until the staff and student body return from lunch break before we can continue this experiment. There is thus time for you to enjoy your Offering rather than rushing through it.” 

Nooroo blinked. “I- …Thank you, Master.” 

A hint of a smile, such a quick flash that she wasn’t certain if she imagined it or not. “It is nothing. Please, enjoy your Offering. Inform me when you are done that we may discuss my thoughts and concerns.” 

And with that he turned back to his computer, pulling up files, documents and images as he kept up with he called his ‘real’ job. 

Which was a point of confusion to Nooroo. She sipped at her Red Bull again. Wasn’t being a Miraculous Wielder a ‘real’ job? Or was it because magic had faded so far out of common knowledge while she slept in her Miraculous Stone? Or was it simply because that to her new Master, the Butterfly brooch was nothing more than a means to an end? 

Nooroo sipped slowly at her drink, dragging it out this moment of almost freedom as long as she could amidst the soft tapping of computer keys and the tick-tock of a grandfather clock. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Marinette cut the day old croissant in half and slathered it with butter. She and Alya were tucked up in her room, she didn’t have to worry about the LOOKS Maman and Papa would give her if they saw her doing this. 

She took a big bite, humming happily. She didn’t care what anyone said about butter and croissants, it was delicious and that was that. 

Alya was staring at her with an expression somewhere between bemused and doting. “You are weird, Mari. CUTE. But weird.” 

Marinette stuck her tongue out at Alya. “You say that EVERY TIME,” she mumbled around her mouthful of buttered croissant. 

“And I will continue to say it,” Alya said firmly, smiling. “Years in the future I will watch you put BUTTER on your croissants and tell you yet again that you are weird, despite being cute.” She spread jam on her own croissant. “Buttering croissants… are you SURE you’re FRENCH?” 

Marinette mock glared at Alya, who snickered. 

They ate the last few bits of cheese and ham, drank the last of their coffee and Alya leaned back. “So. Feeling better?” 

“…Kinda. Not yet, not entirely- but I think I will be?” 

“Fair enough.” 

“So… you said there was something really important that you wanted to talk about?” 

Alya fiddled with her empty coffee cup before sighing. “I’m guessing you’ve figured out that I’m friends with Chat Noir now, after I helped him with Madame Mort, right?” 

Marinette nodded. “Yeah. You… weren’t exactly subtle with sending him to help me clean up my room and get your phone.” 

Alya shrugged, smiling ruefully. 

“So what you want to talk about has something to do with Chat Noir?” 

Alya nodded. “I want him to hang out with you sometimes.” 

“What?!” Marinette yelped. “Why would I possibly do that?!” 

Alya leaned back, surprised at Marinette’s vehement response. “I thought you liked Chat…” 

“I do! But- Alya, it’d be DANGEROUS!” She waved her hands frantically in the air. “You should be ticked off too at him putting you in danger by coming around all the time!” 

“Hey!” 

Marinette crossed her arms. “No. Papillon is always searching for- for them. If Chat Noir started being irresponsible and hanging out at your place or mine all the time, he’d be putting us in DANGER.” 

“Chat is a lot of things, but he’s NEVER irresponsible,” Alya said firmly. “I’ve seen almost every Akuma battle… either by being there or from video someone else sent in. He’s no more irresponsible then Ladybug.” 

Marinette huffed, arms still crossed. Because… yeah, MAYBE she was a little cavalier with things as Ladybug… sometimes. Every now and then. But it was okay for her to be cavalier about that because SHE was the one making those choices. It was totally different when it was someone else MAKING THE CHOICE FOR HER. 

“You know I’m not saying hang out on your balcony for the world to see, I’m saying hang out with him HERE. In your room! I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Chat is VERY stealthy.” 

Well… That was true. But STILL. And to top it off, if Chat dropping by became a regular thing… what if he found out HER secret?! He might hear Tikki! He might SEE Tikki! He might- 

“ALSO… I’m calling in credit owed.” 

“You whatta what?” 

“Animan.” 

Marinette’s brow furrowed as she stared at Alya in confusion at the apparent non sequitur. 

“…It might have worked OUT for everybody involved in the end, Marinette… but the fact remains that you agreed to, and set me up on, a date with Nino- Not only ‘without my permission’ as far as Nino knew… you did it after I flat out TOLD YOU NO.” 

Marinette started to sputter a defense… that fizzled out when Alya held out a hand. 

“No, Mari, it doesn’t matter that it worked out, I still told you NO and you did it anyway, so far as Nino knows you did it without my permission. You are not going to say no to at least ONE meeting that will be perfectly safe. No one will see him if he’s INSIDE the room for heaven’s sake.” 

“Why do you want him to hang out with ME anyway?” Marinette grumbled. It really was NOT fair for Alya to be using that as a trump card. It’d worked out, hadn’t it!? “Why doesn’t he hang out with his other friends? 

“…Mari, he’s only got like…” Alya paused and visibly went over a very short list in her head before speaking again. “Me, his best friend, his Kwami, two girls that HE wants to be friends with but kinda ignore him and stuff… and Ladybug. Me and his best friend are the only ones he can really hang out with outside of his Kwami.” 

The world dropped out from under Marinette. “…what?” 

“One friend, one kwami, two ‘half’ friends, and Ladybug… now he’s got me too, but that’s it.” Alya shrugged. “You’re such a good person, Mari, I thought… I didn’t think you’d get ANGRY and refuse. Gotta admit, I’m glad he wasn’t here for that.” 

Marinette could only stare. “Chat has… he has lots of friends! He’s-” Bouncy, and gregarious, and punny, and loyal, and a horrible flirt, and… “Maybe not as Chat, but as his real self, he probably has DOZENS of friends there!” 

Her silly kitten HAD to have dozens, if not hundreds, of friends. 

Alya shook her head. “No, Mari. I’m including his civilian friends. And before you bring up family… he’s only got his dad and… his dad is probably the worst dad EVER. Of all time.” 

Marinette heard Tikki gasp up where she was hiding on Marinette’s bed. 

Alya frowned and looked towards the loft, confused, but then turned her attention back to Marinette. “Chat would be CAREFUL and stealthy, Mari, just like he is when he’s visiting me. I PROMISE you and your parents won’t be in any danger from Papillon just from a lonely kitten visiting your house. …a lonely kitten who could use a friend like you.” 

A tiny blur of crimson made Marinette glance behind Alya to find Tikki hovering near the paper umbrella Marinette kept tucked into the back of the chaise. 

The Kwami offered a firm nod. She pointed at Alya, then held a hand curled up near her chin and mouthed a ‘nyaaaaa’ soundlessly, then gave Marinette another firm nod. 

Oh. That… okay. If Tikki was alright with it then… 

Her poor Chaton. All alone and she hadn’t known. 

“Okay.” 

Alya perked up. “Really?” 

Marinette uncrossed her arms and leaned forward. “Yes. I’m sorry I was… Papillon and his Akumas just scare me SO MUCH, I guess I didn’t… stop and think that you’d have a good reason for…” she waved a hand at herself, then her room. “I just didn’t think.” 

“So you’ll do it?” 

Marinette smiled. “The silly Chaton needs friends, doesn’t he?” 

Alya whooped and threw her fists into the air in victory. “Great! I’ll let him know! He can come over tomorrow night!” 

“To **MORROW**?” She waved her hands when Alya frowned at her. “No, no, it’s not that it’s… I don’t have any plans or ideas and no time to think of one and-” 

“Always over thinking it… Mari, just play video games! You’re good at them! You can think of other things to do later, but he likes video games, you like video games and it’ll be something fun for both of you!” 

“...Oh that’s right, he plays Ultimate Mecha Strike III,” Marinette realized. She blinked when Alya pinned her with a LOOK. “…What?” 

“…How do you KNOW THAT?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noting again: I saw the Korean Dub ( _English sub_ ) of Origins first, several months before I finally saw it in the French and then English dubs. Thus I’d gotten used to Nooroo having female pronouns and it’s what I have ‘my’ Nooroo using. ^_^
> 
> I was originally going to wait on showing what Nooroo uses to recharge so that she would eat/drink whatever ends up being the CANON food/drink… but Papillon needed someone to talk to for this conversation to really work and being separate so Nooroo could recharge while the school was ‘empty’ during lunch break was the most logical reason for this scene to be happening.
> 
> So in what will likely be the first real case of canon divergence… Nooroo is drinking red bull and is recharged by ‘sweet’ drinks ( _soda, caffeine drinks, fortified wine, fruit juice, etc_ ) but likes the taste and ‘kick’ of Red Bull the best. 
> 
> …
> 
> Yes, it is entirely because ‘Red Bull gives you wings’ and Nooroo is the only Kwami we’ve seen thus far WITH wings, I freely admit this. SHUSH, it’s funny!
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> Marinette’s initial reaction to Alya trying to set up Chat-visits is… for me at least… perfectly in canon and in character for her. Yes, she is rather cavalier with her own secret at times ( _apparently making a habit of swinging in and landing in her room as Ladybug, the way she was going to try to re-record the video for Alya as Ladybug, writing down all her secrets in a diary where the only protection is a small wooden box that she doesn’t always remember to close OR put the diary in, etc_ ) but most of those are… well, Marinette is AMAZING at short-term/in the moment planning. Like, seriously, the girl could give most adult heroes a run for their money.
> 
> She’s not so good at LONG TERM planning or long-term consequences. In many ways, she reminds me of Aang from Avatar. The IMMEDIATE PROBLEM is solved, let’s head off unto the next challenge! …of course the ‘immediate’ solution is not always the best ‘long term’ solution. 
> 
> ‘I need to get home quickly! …I’ll just land as Ladybug and transform! …and unwittingly rely on my own Good Luck and the Glamour to keep people from spotting me.’ And the like
> 
> But bringing someone else in… that changes the equation. This suddenly isn’t MARINETTE taking what she considers a small, quick, risk… this is someone else adding a risk. That CHANGES things, and Marinette canonically reacts with a lot of flailing and ‘worst case scenarios taken to the extreme’ when her ‘norm’ has something change... Which, hey, perfectly normal for a teenager, and funny to watch in the show, but probably not as fun for those caught flat-footed by it.
> 
> That said… as she started to calm down, Marinette was already starting to consider that Maaaaaaaybe she could hang out with Chat. Once or twice. He is her friend.
> 
> And then Alya dropped the bombshell. 
> 
> Marinette has SEVERAL friends. She is canonically friends with most of her classmates and is well known and popular at school. 
> 
> Adrien does not. Oh he’d become friends with the other classmates if they so much as said ‘hey, wanna be friends’, ( _seriously, the boy should be named DUG_ ) but he lacks the social context clues to catch any offers of friendship outside of something that obvious and flat out. So the other classmates and the school are acquaintances, not friends. And Chloé… well, Alya has a poor opinion of Chloé, and she only really sees the duos interactions at school, hence why she classified Chloé as ‘not really a friend’. MARINETTE got classified as ‘not really a friend’ because Alya knows Mari DOESN’T INTERACT MUCH WITH ADRIEN… Heck, Alya’s called Mari on that several times in canon and has tried to push her into doing more than staring after the boy with mournful eyes. _(Alya also has a very low opinion of Gabriel and Natalie)_
> 
> In canon, Adrien has ONE best friend ( _Nino_ ), his old-and strained- friendship with Chloé, his attempted friendship with Mari ( _INTERACT WITH HIM GIRL!! STOP PINING AND INTERACT!! Kung Food and Gamer are strong indicators that you’ll be REALLY good friends if you could just INTERACT_ ) and Alya is just kinda… there. In canon, she has little to no interaction with Adrien.
> 
> Marinette was operating under the idea that anyone as friendly and kind as Chat MUST have a huge friend base. The bombshell that no, he’s almost all alone, destroyed any/all resistance. Mari loves that boy ( _platonically and, although she doesn’t know it given the whole secret identity thing, romantically… also she occasionally spikes into romantic interest with CHAT and just denies it, there’s that too_ ). And she’s got a HUGE and SOFT heart. 
> 
> My kitten is alone!? My kitten needs friends! Annnnnnd she’s off.


	7. Chapter 7

Nooroo finished the last sip of her Red Bull and picked up the empty can, flying it over to the garbage can and dropping it in before returning to sit on the desk before her Master.

Her Master finished working on the file he had open, saved it, and then closed all of the files before turning to look at Nooroo. “Did you enjoy your Offering?” 

“Yes, Master. …Thank you for introducing me to Red Bull.” 

“You are welcome. Now. Onto the matters I wished to discuss with you.” 

Nooroo nodded, waiting patiently as her Master arranged his thoughts into a concise whole. 

“This experiment that we are conducting. From your reactions and uncertainty, it seems that I am the first Papilion to attempt such a matter?” 

Nooroo nodded. “Yes, Master. Now that you have done it, it seems obvious, but… the idea of charging an Akuma and having it lie in wait at a set location so that you may choose a Champion from a flare of emotion that would otherwise fade before the Akuma could arrive is…” she considered. “Brilliant,” she finally admitted. It was a concept that she would have to tell the Guardian, as well as her next wielder. 

“I thank you for the compliment, my dear Nooroo, but we are not yet successful. While the Akuma is lying in wait, and it is holding its ‘charge’… we have not yet chosen a new Champion. It is possible that the final stage of this experiment may result in a failure.” 

“That is possible, Master, but I truly do think it will be a success.” 

“We shall see.” 

“Master?” 

“Yes, Nooroo?” 

“Do you still suspect Adrien is Chat Noir?” 

“I am more certain now than ever that this is the case.” 

“Then why-?” 

“Am I choosing the paths I have followed?” 

“Yes.” 

“Madame Mort was… more powerful, and more dangerous, than I originally anticipated. I did not wish to risk Adrien’s life to her touch, and ordered her away. That test was a failure on essentially all points. Mnemosyne was to buy myself time to develop a more effective plan of action. There was, as always, a chance that she might succeed in gaining the Miraculous stones, but I needed time to think. Time to discover a way in which to get a Champion where I needed them with more speed and precision than I have been able achieve to prior.” 

Nooroo nodded. That did make sense, in a slightly twisty kind of way. “Why do you not confront Adrien?” 

“Simply put, because I cannot risk direct confrontation with Adrien. If I am wrong – and the possibility that I am wrong still exists- I will be revealing myself to a civilian and dragging Adrien into danger. …If I am right, Adrien could transform into Chat Noir before I am able to remove the ring, and I would not win in direct combat with Chat Noir.” 

“You are invulnerable to most harm when transformed, Master, the same as Chat Noir and Ladybug are. All Miraculous Wielders have that protection.” 

“Yes, but the Butterfly is the distant watcher, the General of Champions. I am not as fast, not as strong, I have only the barest ability to bend physics to my whims. If Adrien IS Chat Noir, it is likely he could, and would, transform before I could get the ring from him. I CAN NOT RISK direct conflict with the Ladybug or the Black Cat.” 

“This… is true. I am sorry, Master.” 

“You need not be sorry, my dear Nooroo. Your abilities are perfect for their intended use.” 

That was true. 

Her Master’s lips quirked in a brief smile. “And while my actions are not the intended use, the powers you grant are still well-nigh perfect for my current needs.” 

…That was also true. 

Out in the hall, beyond the closed doors, a grandfather clock chimed a short set of notes, marking the half-hour. “Ah. Now that lunch is over… Come, Nooroo, let us see this experiment to its conclusion.” 

“Yes, Master.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
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“Nino!” 

Nino looked up as he got to the stairs of the Collège and smiled as Adrien got out of his limo and charged towards him. “Bro!” 

Adrien slowed down just as he got to Nino, but Nino stepped closer to him and threw an arm around the blond’s shoulders, dragging him in for a shoulder hug, which made Adrien smile happily. “What’s up, Dude?” 

“I forgot to congratulate you for your fourth win on ‘The Challenge’ on Sunday,” Adrien said with a rueful smile. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there, things just… came up yesterday that I couldn’t get out of.” 

Nino snorted and shook Adrien’s shoulders. “It’s all cool, Bro. Will you be there this coming Sunday?” 

Adrien beamed. “Yup!” 

“Hi, Nino,” The two boys turned to look up the stairs at the soft greeting and found Juleka walking down to them. “Cool job on getting Principal Damocles to agree to giving the school radio station more freedom in the songs we can play.” She smiled shyly and shuffled a foot. “I probably should have called you on Sunday when you won the challenge, or said something before lunch break, but-” 

Nino smiled. “It’s all cool, Juleka. Oh!” he glanced at Adrien, silently asking for permission. At Adrien’s nod, he looked back to Juleka. “My man Adrien wanted to help us out. I figured Monsieur Kaniel would be okay with the three of us sitting off to the side during Music on Friday, and you can tell Adrien what we need tech wise. Since we’ve got 2nd récré before music, we can head into in the classroom early for the 15 minutes too instead of… I dunno know what you usually do for break, Juleka, sorry.” 

Juleka smiled shyly. “I usually just relax out front, but… Adrien, if you’re really okay with it, it’d be a huge help to get better tech.” 

“And Juleka is the one to ask about this stuff,” Nino said, smiling gleefully. 

“Why Juleka?” a new voice asked in a curious tone. 

The trio turned to find Alya and Marinette standing behind them. 

Juleka ducked slightly, bashful. “I’m… really good with technology, Marinette,” she offered softly, eyes on the ground. 

“Oh! Speaking of,” Alya said. “Thanks for lending me the camera, Juleka.” 

Juleka glanced back up. “Do you still want me to help you with the editing?” 

“If you don’t mind? I know you’re busy.” 

“Actually, not really. I finished up the project last night.” 

“You did?!” Rose was suddenly THERE, throwing her arms around Juleka and hugging her, the petite girl bouncing in place. “You finished the app ALREADY? You’re so amazing!” 

“App?” Nino asked. 

Rose nodded. “Juleka made a PHONE APP! Shazam for Architecture! You take a picture of a building or anything, and the app tells you all about the location and the architecture style and everything!” 

Juleka blushed. “Rose came up with the idea, and she gave me the basic information… I just did the tech part.” 

Four phones were whipped out in near perfect sync. “Shazam for Architecture, right?” Marinette asked, even as she typed on the phone. 

Eyes wide, Juleka nodded. 

Marinette got the app installed first and raised her phone to take a picture of the front of the school, then Oooooooed at the information that was pulled up. “I LOVE it.” 

There was a faint, yet sharp, double clicking sound from Juleka’s pocket, as if someone had snapped their fingers twice. Juleka pulled out her phone and looked at the notification of the downloads of her app, her face going red. “…Thank you.” 

Alya’s eyes gleamed as she looked over the app, and she looked up at Juleka with a CONSIDERING expression. 

“Uh-oh, I know that look,” Nino offered, lips quirking in a smile. “What evil plan do you have THIS time, babe?” 

“It’s not evil!” Alya insisted, which made everyone laugh. “Okay, but seriously. Juleka… I’m planning on calling some of the news stations and police and the like to ask about crime rates and stuff to see if there are people doing… uh, Ladybug and Chat called it ‘YOLO Sickness’, but it’s basically people doing dumb or illegal stuff. So I want to see how often people are actually doing things, and how often the Miraculous Restoration actually DOES something, and when it doesn’t, and if there’s a common factor and stuff. You’re...” Alya waved her phone, the app still up on her screen, around. “You’re like super good with computers. Could you maybe help me?” 

Juleka blinked, then smiled shyly. “Sure. I’ll ask my dad if I can come over to your place, or if you can come to mine sometime this week? If you bring the camera I can help with the editing and stuff for the interview still too.” 

“That’d be GREAT!!” Alya said, smiling broadly. 

The first bell rang, and everyone headed back into the school, Marinette taking the lead as the six of them headed towards the locker room to get ready for Physical Education. Adrien trailed to a stop for a moment, frowning up at the sky above the courtyard. He looked around, carefully scouring the windows and nooks of the second floor and roof. Finding nothing, he started slowly walking again, frowning. “Plagg?” he asked quietly. 

“Yeah, Kid?” 

“I thought I saw- …Can Papillon charge Akumas before people get angry or anything?” 

“Not that I’m aware of.” 

“Okay. Guess it was just a bit of paper or something then.” Adrien sped up to catch up with the others as they filed into the locker rooms. 

Tucked into the upper corner of one of the windows, dark wings rustled softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: February 2017  
> I had to do an edit when referring to Nino's win on 'The Challenge' TV show when I had to rework part of the timeline. Thus Nino's win that Juleka was congratulating him on went from his 3rd to his 4th win.
> 
> Juleka got to be Nino’s partner in [the school radio station that he is a part of](http://miraculousladybug.wikia.com/wiki/Nino_Lahiffe#Trivia) because some of the older designs/images of Juleka [show her in a MUCH more punk-then-goth outfit with a guitar slung on her back](http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/lady-bug/images/7/77/Tumblr_n9e785237R1rhvp6no6_1280.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20150808061514), so it seemed reasonable that Juleka, like Nino, is a big music buff.
> 
> She got to be the techie for several reasons… one of which was that I wanted her to have a distinct skill like so many of the other characters have outside of being the ‘shy goth one’. Another is that Nino is the ‘DJ’, he’s the guy who canonically is the best with music, and rather than trying to have Juleka compete… I figured she could come at music more from the tech side so that she and Nino COMPLIMENTED each other instead of competing.  
> While I could have had Max be the techie… just because he’s good at games and a math nerd does NOT equal being good with coding/tech/etc. In fact I rather liked the idea of Max being good at USING tech and math, but not being good at CREATING tech. So I proudly introduce Techie!Juleka to the fandom. ^_^
> 
> As Sharm (one of my betas) asked this: Juleka got interested in tech in ‘my’ verse and is motivated to continue because to her programming makes SENSE. Numbers don’t change, code follows sensible rules and is another constant, she can hide behind a computer screen, etc. For a shy, introverted girl, those are all GREAT things… It’s how my kid brother got to be such a good programmer (granted this was in the 90s, buuuuut) and he is VERY similar to Juleka in baseline personality. 
> 
> …and yes, her notification soundfile is the ‘The Addams Family’ Theme double snap. Specifically it’s the 60s live-action TV show’s version, which is different from the films’, the animated show’s and the new series(don’t really like the New Addams Family theme honestly), etc. You can pry ‘biggest Addams Family fan in the universe’ Juleka from my cold dead fingers, and even then I might not let it go :P (That said, if someone else wants to have Juleka be an Addams fan as well, permission gleefully granted!) 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Okay… so this is TOTALLY off topic, but it’s something that came to mind while I was re-watching (as I am wont to do) to fact check as I wrote… am I the only one that prefers Marinette’s hair when it only has the faintest hint of blue (basically the hair is true/realistic ‘raven’s wing’: black with highlights that are only faintly blue?) as opposed to the more common in the show ‘actually blue’?
> 
> Like, I really like THIS \|/ |  Much better than this \|/  
> ---|---  
> |   
> Am I the only one?   
>   
> I get that they were tributing the old comics where blue was used instead of black, but the ‘true blue’ just comes across as dyed to me, when so far as I can tell it’s supposed to be her ‘natural’ hair color in ‘verse. ( _I am 100% cool with Juleka’s dyed tips, Alix’s pink hair, or Nadja’s fuchsia hair. Dyed hair is COOL… I just don’t like it when a color that could only come from a bottle is treated in-verse as a natural color… yes, I’m weird. We’ve established this ^_^_ ) I guess that for me they just took the ‘hair so black the eye is tricked into seeing blue’ ( _aka ‘raven wing’_ ) too far in the ‘blue’ direction. 
> 
> ( _Side note: the only change I did to the upper image was darkening the hair, and only the hair, by -66 with photoshop so it was closer to black. I didn’t even desaturate_ )


	8. Chapter 8

Madame Angie Cisinski clapped her hands once, sharply, once everyone was in and seated in the Art room. “If I could have everyone’s attention please? …Thank you. Now, as I’m sure you’ve noticed in all your classes, we’re assigning you your final term projects. As we’re all a week behind, like most of your other teachers, I will be assigning you to groups for this project. Since you’ll be working on your final project primarily in class, this is going to require you to switch from your normal tables.”

There were groans from most of the class, but Madame Cisinski was generally considered one of the ‘coolest’ teachers, and they all knew she at least wouldn’t assign some impossible monster of a final project. 

“Alright. We will have two groups of five, and one group of four for now. We have a new student who will be joining us next week, and she’ll be assigned to the four person group once she arrives.” 

Marinette perked up. A new student? This late in the year? That was unusual. She wondered who it was and what she’d be like. 

“Alya, Nino, Chloé, Nathanaël and Juleka will be Group One. Mylène, Sabrina, Kim, Max and Ivan will be Group Two. Marinette, Adrien, Rose and Alix will be Group Three, with our late arrival later joining you. Now, everyone please move to join your Group at a single table, and then I’ll explain what this term project will be.” 

The groans were much more heartfelt this time, and everyone slowly moved to their new groups. Marinette sat down right next to Adrien, barely able to suppress a delighted squeak when he smiled at her. Rose and Alix sat down happily, Rose taking Adrien’s free side and smiling up at him, while Alix sat down beside Rose. Marinette swallowed back another squeak. This MORE than made up for having to work with Sabrina for her French Literacy project. 

While Group Two looked to be overall alright with the people involved, Group One's round table was tense as a Mexican Stand-Off. Chloé sat, her arms crossed as she half pouted and half glared at the other four, with an uncertain Nino on her left, and a scowling Alya on the right. Nathanaël and Juleka were eying Chloé with distrust where the two sat sandwiched between Alya and Nino, each of the five waiting for the other to make the first move. 

“Now. This final project for the school year is a bit freeform. That is, I’ll accept anything from a painting to a computer game, BUT – there are a list of requirements that MUST be met. Your project has to be interactive in some way; it needs to incorporate art in some manner, obviously; and I would like you to incorporate some elements of history in. You all must participate in this project… If one falls, you all fall. Now. Let’s get started!” 

Nathanaël groaned and dropped his head onto his arms, jostling both Nino and Juleka slightly as he did so. Two. TWO group projects with Chloé. Why had he decided to take ITALIAN for his Foreign Language 2 class? …or why had CHLOÉ had to take it!? At least Adrien had been assigned to the three person group… Hopefully Chloé would focus on ADRIEN and leave Nathanaël alone. But here? 

The universe hated him, he was certain. 

“So… I guess let’s brainstorm and figure out what we want to do first,” Alya offered. “Then figure out who does what part so NONE of us fail.” 

Chloé offered an annoyed sound, but didn’t argue and after a few more tense moments, the group began to cautiously brainstorm. Most of the ideas were thrown out because they weren’t interactive, or because they had no history element. Some were tossed out because while they’d be interactive, the ‘art’ would be an incredibly minor aspect, and that probably would get them a bad grade given the whole, you know, ART CLASS final project. 

“Well… What about an interactive phone game?” Juleka offered. 

“What, like Pokémon Go?” Chloé asked, looking ACTUALLY interested for the first time. 

Nathanaël perked up and nodded. “Yeah. I mean we’d have to have designs for… whatever we’re ‘hunting’ in the game, right? So that’d be the art aspect EASY.” Designing monsters or ghosts or… well, designing anything would be really FUN. “I can do the designing!” he put in quickly, before anyone else could snatch the prize away from him. 

“…I could totally make a musical score for a game,” Nino said, smiling. “Like… background music and battle music-” 

“I don’t think I could make it as… complex as Pokémon Go… at least not before the end of term,” Juleka said, frowning slightly. “But I could get a simple version of an app done and if it gets popular I could make it more complex over the summer.” 

“-and capture music and victory music and-” 

“I’ve got a REALLY powerful computer at my place,” Alya said. “We can use it for the programming and stuff since it’ll process it faster, and I can probably help you with the app programming at least a BIT Juleka… I know the basics at least.” 

“-and travelling music and start-up music and menu music and-” 

“What is the game going to be ABOUT?” Chloé demanded. 

Dead silence. 

“Uh.” 

They took to brainstorming again. It couldn’t be original or cutesy monsters, because that edged too close to Pokémon and NO ONE wanted to be sued by a huge company ( _That was a bear not even Chloé wanted to poke_ ). 

Ghosts were a possibility, but kinda boring overall, at least so far as Nathanaël and Chloé were concerned. Nathanaël almost backed out of THAT because… agreeing with Chloé… no thank you… but there were only so many designs you could have for ghosts and on top of it having them be based on REAL people took pretty much all the fun out of the designs if nothing else. 

Nino started to suggest having it be based on Champions or Akumas, but everyone else shot that down. Even if they had it be totally ‘original’ Champions… No, just no. Between their own experiences, the fact that Champions and Akumas were… a terrifying part of everyday reality now and (as Alya pointed out) France’s privacy laws, there was no way an ‘Akuma capturing game’ was a good plan. 

By the time the bell for class shift rang, none of them had been able to think of a solution, although the idea of keeping it a phone app, and probably a capture game, was one that… well, all five of them could agree on, if nothing else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This subplot is primarily because EVERY SINGLE PLOT/SUBPLOT that I see with Alya and Nino revolves pretty much exclusively around Mari and Adrien. They never get to get up to their OWN STUFF, no matter how minor.
> 
> So. Art project. ( _And we’ll be seeing Alya doing more reporter/website stuff and Nino getting up to more DJ stuff_ ) Chloé, Nathanaël and Juleka were chosen to fill in the group for a wide range of reasons, but PRIMARILY it’s: Juleka gets to show off the ‘tech’ skills I gave her and her canon interest in the odd ( _which we get a glimpse of in Horrificator_ ), Nath gets to show off his canonical art skills, and Chloé gets to interact with people who both will not take bull BUT won’t start a fight. I’ll find more for Alya and Nino to get up to later, but I wanted them to get a start on ‘our own thing’ plot NOW rather than later.
> 
> SECONDARILY it’s: These are three characters that I want to delve into, as I find them very interesting and the fandom versions of Nath and Juleka often vary VERY wildly from both canon and my own observations/headcanons and all three have a trend of being reduced to single notes… I want to find out what each of their songs are.
> 
> Also… 100% unrelated, but dear GOD Juleka is TALL! She’s seriously almost Adrien’s height, and Adrien is one of the taller guys ( _Nino’s a hair taller, then Kim and Ivan take the tall cake_ ) but WOW is she TALL. ( _There’s one or two scenes where she seems shorter, like the close-ups as she does Adrien’s make-up, but as the scene pulls out it’s made obvious that she was leaning forward and ducking to get lower… probably for a better viewing angle of her work_ ) 
> 
> …and Nath is a SHRIMP. He’s either Marinette’s height OR Rose’s height ( _which puts him a hair shorter than Mari_ ). 
> 
> (I took like 3 seconds and used the character art that’s been released for the 2D webisodes and put the Art Group together (in order of heights) because they’re adorable)  
>   
> Oh, and just as I do for Marinette, I darken Nath’s hair in my mental image. In Darkblade and Bubbler, Nath’s hair is a true auburn like Alya, and I rather like that as opposed to the more ‘from a bottle ‘honey mist auburn’ orange’ ^_^ Not actually important, just a note of ‘yes, your eyes do not deceive you, Nath’s hair is darker than usual-canon in the image above’  
> Soooo while I was moving the chara images around for ‘by height’ I selected Nath’s hair and darkened it by -36… and I took away Juleka’s hair antennae thingy because... well, because.  
> ( _What the heck IS up with that, btw? It shows up in the Ladybug PV for 2D-Mari/Bridgette too, as well as in the art for the upcoming webseries on Mari, Juleka, Mylène and Lila, and a smaller version on Adrien and Nathanaël_ )
> 
>  
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Alright, so I based the school day ( _and the order of classes for the most part_ ) off the Collège days of my French family members ( _there’s over 200 of them. My family is ginormous_ ).  
> I also finalized the Year calendar, and the class schedule and BOTH are up on the Series Bible ( _[Chapter 6: Weekly Schedule and Year Calendar](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8189071/chapters/19608586)_ ).  
> Edit: February 2017  
> I recently had to do a timeline edit to the series, and changed one reference here... rather than two weeks behind, Mrs. Cisinski says that they are A week behind. A minor change, but I try to let everyone know when I do an edit and why


	9. Chapter 9

Last class of the day… and what a long day it had been. Marinette slumped into Mademoiselle Bustier’s classroom for Foreign Language 1 and dropped into her seat with a sigh. EVERY class, except Physical Education, had given them a final term project… and most of them had put them into groups. And odds were high that they’d be getting projects for the remaining classes over the course of the week. It was going to be an EXHAUSTING term, no matter how amazing it was going to be working on the final project with ADRIEN in art class, even if she hadn’t been able to be in the same group as he was for Foreign Language 2 ( _but at least she’d escaped being in a group with Chloé there!_ ).

But on the plus side, at least there hadn’t been an Akuma attack! 

Mademoiselle Bustier was working quietly on her tablet as she waited for the bell to ring, and Marinette eyed the pile of paper packets on the teacher’s desk with a sense of resignation. 

It looked like there would be another project here. …Why did English have to be such a WEIRD and DIFFICULT language anyway? Why couldn’t it make SENSE and follow sensible rules like French did!? 

When the bell rang, Mademoiselle Bustier looked up, setting her tablet down on the table behind her for the moment. “Alright, so I’m certain you’ve all noticed a trend in the assignments your teachers are giving you today.” She smiled at the groans she received from THAT playful comment. “All of you have le diplôme national du Brevet coming up at the end of this year, and while the brevet is not required for entrance to Lycée…” she trailed off for a moment as many of the people in the class exchanged glances. “Neither does passing it guarantee that you will progress to the higher level school.” 

Several students, Marinette among them, stared at Miss Bustier with wide eyes at that. Marinette gulped. She… hadn’t known that part. She’d thought that if she did well enough on the brevet it’d be as good as done on progressing to Lycée… 

“I will tell you that it is something that the teachers and staff at Lycée LOOK at, and it will influence your final prospects to a greater or lesser extent.” 

There were no groans this time, instead everyone sat quietly as the realization slowly sank in for all of them about just how close the end of the year, and the end of collège, was. Collège was, when you got down to it, all about preparing them for lycée. …Lycée was all about preparing them for the ‘real world’, the adult world of work and taxes, rights and responsibilities, privileges and provisos that at 15, most of them only had limited experience with. 

“You still have just over two months before the school year ends, so now is the time to start looking into the various lycées to see which ones fit your requirements best, and decide if you want to go for lycée général, lycée technologique, or lycée professionnel if you haven’t made that already.” 

From the sounds of frantic typing all around her, Marinette was not the only one who had managed to forget the different courses at lycée, AND what a big impact they had on both the time spent in lycée and their professional and adult lives afterwards. Marinette nibbled on her tablet pen. How could she have forgotten that this was her LAST YEAR in collège? That she needed to figure out what she wanted to do for lycée and beyond and to start working for it?! 

Oh wait. 

Marinette glanced down at her purse, where Tikki was currently napping. Alright, so being Ladybug WAS a little time and energy consuming. …Rewarding, and amazing… but it did eat away at her free time and attention. What with the Akumas and Champions and patrols and then MORE Akumas and helping out normal everyday people outside of battle and patrol. Those kittens weren’t going to get themselves out of those trees! 

…wait… maybe they would. Was the ‘cat stuck in a tree’ thing reality or a myth? 

Mademoiselle Bustier spoke again, drawing Marinette’s attention back to the here and now as her teacher smiled kindly. “We are here to help you figure out what you want to do and help you find out how to succeed. I’ll be staying after school on Wednesdays from now until the end of term. You can either just come by and we can talk, or if you prefer we can set up an appointment.” 

Marinette typed a note up on her tablet to set up an appointment with Miss Bustier this Wednesday and see what her teacher thought would be the best way to become a professional fashion designer. Should she go for the general or the professional? Were there courses specifically FOR fashion and clothing design? Should she have a specific portfolio? Should she have examples of clothing and things like the glasses she’d made for Jagged Stone?! Should she- 

“So, onto this term’s final project. We’ll be using the same groups here as you are in in French Literacy-” 

Should she join Chloé in almost screaming in frustration? 

Too late, she already had. 

Mademoiselle Bustier closed her mouth and aimed a severe look at both Chloé and Marinette. “OR,” she said, “If it is deemed necessary, I could always have young ladies who seem intent on disrupting class work together? Chloé, Marinette? You two-” 

“NO!” both shrieked in near perfect sync. 

At the window, dark wings rustled rapidly, as if in excitement. 

Mademoiselle Bustier’s severe look became several degrees darker. “I beg your pardon.” 

“You cannot POSSIBLY expect me to-” Chloé began. 

            “There is no way I can-” Marinette said, a second behind her. 

“-work with HER!” the both finished, once again accidentally in sync. 

Mademoiselle Bustier’s glare could now only be described as artic. “It seems… that there are matters I should have addressed earlier in the school year.” Still glaring, she reached back with one hand and picked up her tablet without even taking her eyes off Marinette and Chloé. “I know that there is history between you two, but-” 

“But Chloé-!” 

“I have done NOTHING wrong!” 

Marinette spun to glare at Chloé. “That’s more of a lie then usual!” 

Alya muttered something about Chloé that Marinette missed as she kept her eyes locked on Chloé’s. Alya whipped her phone out and started recording, even as she reached out with one hand and grabbed Marinette’s arm, trying to pull her back to her seat. 

“Oh, like YOU never lie, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!?” 

“Girls!” 

“I-” Marinette’s hands fisted by her sides and she yanked her arm out of Alya’s grip. She hated liars… but she herself WAS a liar. Being called on the hypocrisy by CHLOÉ of all people just made it all the worse. “At least I never try hurt people just because I can!” 

“Oh, and what do you call that SITUATION with Officer Roger? You certainly seemed eager to blame everyone but YOURSELF!” 

“GIRLS!” 

“That was ONE TIME! And I apologized for it!” 

“Have you apologized to Adrien for how you-” 

There was a loud BANG from the front of the classroom. “ **GIRLS!!** ” 

Everyone jumped, their attention snapping back to Mademoiselle Bustier, who had just slammed her free hand down on her table. The expression on her face was thunderous. “I want both of you to go to the Principal’s Office!” 

“But-” 

“NO. Both of you. Collect your bags and-” 

A butterfly fluttered down from the window in a flurry of black and purple, landing on Mademoiselle Bustier’s tablet… and vanishing within, staining the once white plastic a dark purple. 

Someone towards the back of the room screamed; Marinette wasn’t certain who, unwilling (or unable) to take her eyes off what was happening in front of them all. 

Mademoiselle Bustier’s expression went curiously blank, and the mark of Papillon flared to life before her. 

“Say no to him!” Adrien yelled, surging to his feet. “If you say no he can’t control you!!” 

“Mademoiselle Bustier, you just have to say NO!!!” Marinette shouted, pleading. 

For a long minute, nothing happened, the entire room holding their breath in terror, unable to leave while Mademoiselle Bustier stood effectively between them and the door. 

Then Mademoiselle Bustier looked up, eyes narrowing. “Yes, Papillon.” 

The dark stain on her tablet flared and surged, spreading out with lightning speed to fully engulf her, before subsiding to reveal the form of Papillon’s newest Champion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note how the only people who called for her to ‘just say no’ are the only ones who have NEVER BEEN POSSESSED. Both Adrien and Marinette are aware, thanks to information given to them by their Kwamis, that you CAN say no to Papillon and if you refuse his offer, he has to withdraw the Akuma.
> 
> Neither really realize just how much even the OFFER messes with people’s emotional/logical control, or how it drop kicks people into ‘dream logic/a dream like state’ at the instant of possession. They thus don’t get how hard/unlikely saying No *IS*
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Miss Bustier was NOT actually all THAT angry at the time of her possession. The spike of anger she had would not, normally, have shown up on Papillon’s radar, and it would have been gone LONG before he could even charge an Akuma. 
> 
> She also was PROBABLY not going to assign Chloé and Marinette to work together, she KNOWS that’s a recipe for disaster, BUT the girls panicked at the very idea and interrupted her before she could SAY as much… and then started sniping at each other and she lost her temper slightly ( _not much, just enough to slap the table to get their attention and to send them to the Principal_ )
> 
> And yes, Mari is stressed out ( _getting end of term projects in every class when the end of ‘middle school’ and the looming threat of ‘high school’ will do that_ ) but she DOES canonically get into sniping matches with Chloé, so when both are stressed out… yeah, to me, them getting sniping AGAIN felt in character. Chloé was just being her usual self, and bringing any/all ammo she could to bear in the fight ( _hence bringing up Officer Roger and trying to bring up Marinette’s crush-stalking on Adrien_ )


	10. Chapter 10

The dark motes and purple energy faded away, and Papillon’s Champion considered the room of terrified teenagers in considering silence, resplendent in a floor length white dress accented by delicate white-feathered wings. She wore a white half-mask that covered her face from her hairline to her cheeks, and a teal sash hung behind her back, looped over her forearms, the ends just brushing the floor as she lifted her tablet up, typing something.

Adrien shifted his weight carefully where he was still standing, but before he could leap forward to try and grab the tablet from the apparently distracted Akumatized woman- 

Her hand moved in a sudden sharp gesture that reminded him of how Lady Wifi had used her phones for her attacks- 

And the words ‘ ** _Take Your Seats_** ’, translucent and growing from the size of his palm to six meters wide in the span of a second, leapt from her tablet and rushed over the students in the class, phasing through them before dissipating just before it would have struck the bookshelf on the back wall. 

It hit them with a physical force, like a windstorm, and knocked all of the students who had gotten to their feet, Marinette and Adrien among them, off their feet and pressed those who had been seated against their seats. He tried to move, to get back to his feet… 

And found that he couldn’t. 

This… was probably bad. 

The mark of Papillon flared to life again, and Adrien tried not to let his eyes widen when the combined gaze of Champion and Papillon seemed to focus on HIM. 

“Good afternoon, everyone. I am Sans Sheriff. I have been asked to expose the truth behind a dreadful and dangerous falsehood.” 

This was DEFINITELY bad. 

Sans Sheriff turned her gaze back down to her tablet. “I have no intent to harm any of you, and so long as everyone does as is commanded of them, we shall soon be done and I shall stand down as Champion so that things may return to normal.” 

Champions could ‘stand down’? Did that mean the Akuma LEFT or did it just go dormant or- 

… 

This was SO not the time. 

Adrien felt a sudden sharp pain on his chest and barely managed to suppress a yelp as he started to jerk away from whatever had hurt him… and froze. 

He could move. He had to- 

Too late. 

Sans Sheriff swiped her fingers across the tablet again, and the words ‘ ** _Speak the Truth_** ’ hit the class. Another pain, this one even sharper, went stabbing through him even as he started to open his mouth. “Tell me what you think of modeling!” a voice hissed from within his shirt, even as his classmates started saying… what seemed like random things. 

“I act like I’m calm but I’m like super stressed out ALL the time…” 

“I hate how I’m scared of everything all the time.” 

“I wish people would see me instead of forgetting I exist…” 

“I hate modeling, I only do it because it’s important to my Father,” Adrien answered Plagg, and his jaw clicked shut in horror. Oh no. He could see where this was going. Papillon must have figured out who he really was! 

“I love designing and crafting and being able to help people!” 

“I still haven’t told my Dad that I broke the watch.” 

“I don’t like cats because I’m scared of them.” 

“I switched to livestreaming so maybe Ladybug will come and save us,” Alya said in a whisper so soft that Adrien could only just hear her. His eyes widened before he caught himself. That… That should work. That might be what saved them all. 

“I love being challenged even when I lose! It’s the challenge that’s the thing!” 

“I actually like doing things for other people to prove that we’re friends…” 

“I love how numbers make everything CLEAR and better.” 

“I don’t want to be abandoned anymore!” 

“Mylène being happy is the best thing in the world.” 

“I want to paint everything in Paris a trillion shades of pink!!” Rose shouted, jolting to her feet, making everyone, even Sans Sheriff, stare at her. 

“…I’m sorry. What did you just say, Rose?” the supervillain asked, apparently unable to believe what she’d just heard. “And… is there any particular reason that you felt the need to shout?” 

“I just… I…” 

“Rose turns up the volume when she’s worked up,” Juleka offered in a soft, calm tone of voice, seemingly unafraid… but then again, Adrien thought, she’d been unafraid of Horrificator, finding the monstrous Akumatized Champion ‘cool’. “And Rose is scared. Of YOU.” 

Sans Sheriff leaned back slightly, but then nodded. “Very well.” She started to look back to her tablet, then paused and looked back up, her expression baffled. “But… Rose, could you please clarify what you meant about painting Paris pink?” 

The entire classroom twisted in their seats to look to the back of the room where Rose stood, because… well, they wanted to know too. And it was a moment of near normalcy amidst what was a rather terrifying moment. 

Adrien turned as well, not to look at Rose as the others were, but to put his back to Sans Sheriff so that she couldn’t see his face… which meant she wouldn’t see his mouth moving as he spoke as softly as he could. 

“Plagg, he knows,” Adrien whispered in horror, a tiny part of him hoping that it was soft enough not to be picked up by Alya’s phone, while Sans Sheriff was distracted by Rose as the blonde began to explain ( _by shouting at the top of her terrified lungs-making everyone’s ears ring_ ) about how she loved pink and wanted everyone else to be happy- 

“No, he SUSPECTS I’ll bet,” Plagg whisper-growled from his shirt. “If he KNEW he wouldn’t go for forcing the truth out of you, he’d have had Sans Sheriff lead with something to knock you out or worse.” 

-and pink could ( _maybe_ ) make everyone as happy as it made her,- 

Adrien gulped. “But all he has to do is have her ASK,” he whispered, vaguely aware of the fact that he’d started to hyperventilate. 

-so if she painted the entirety of Paris in the trillions of shades of pink- 

Sharp claws dug into his chest again, harder than ever. “Calm down, Kid. You know how to double-talk, you do it all the time as Chat Noir. You know how to tell lie by telling the truth. Just FOCUS. Her ‘sit-stay’ wore off pretty fast,” Plagg paused for a second, and Adrien could just hear the sarcastic snicker. “But what did she expect, telling a cat to sit or stay. We’re not a dog. …I bet the Truth’s wearing off already too.” 

-then everyone would be happy! Right? RIGHT! 

Okay. Plagg was right. He could do this. He could buy time, watch his words, until the ‘Speak the Truth’ wore off or Ladybug saw the livestream and came to the rescue. 

“Thank you, Rose for that… fascinating concept,” Sans Sheriff said as Rose finished up her shouted explanation of how a pink Paris would save the world from sadness. She still looked a trifle pole-axed by the unexpected ‘confession’, and given the fact that the Mark of Papillon had not flared to life during the whole mess, Adrien was willing to bet Papillon had been thrown off target or at least caught flat-footed by the bundle of nerves and hope that was Rose Lavillant as well. 

Sans Sheriff brought up her tablet again and looked at it, then her gaze locked onto Adrien. “We will start our class discussion alphabetically. Adrien Agreste…” 

Alright. He could probably lie soon, and he had a rough idea of what to say and a VERY good idea about what NOT to say. He could, if nothing else, probably manage until Ladybug saw the livestream that Alya had started and came to save them. ( _Clever CLEVER Alya, he’d have to find a way to thank her for finding a way to let Ladybug know what was happening_ ) 

The Mark of Papillon flared to life again. “Tell us about yourself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, the idea of having Mademoiselle Bustier, who looks SHOCKINGLY similar to Lucille from ‘A Monster in Paris’ basically wearing Lucille’s white dress with Francœur’s teal sash/scarf and half-mask was just too good to pass ^_^ 
> 
> Technically it’s a doge mask, but people see ‘doge’ and think of the shiba inu meme sooooo I used the less accurate/less official name.
> 
>   * Ladybug wears a Domino mask. It covers just the eyes and the space between, and the modern domino usually narrows over the bridge of the nose ( _older/traditional Dominos are an oval_ ) and doesn’t cover the nose itself, only the bridge, and also only a small amount of the cheekbones and forehead and generally speaking isn’t wide enough to reach the temples, or only just touches them. Tuxedo Mask wears what’s known as a ‘winged Domino’
>   * Chat Noir wears a Colombina mask. It covers the eyes, the entire nose ( _bridge to tip_ ) and at least some of the forehead and some or all of the cheekbones, and generally is wider ( _the tips reach and/or cover the temples_ )
>   * Francœur ( _the flea monster in ‘A Monster in Paris’_ ) is wearing a Doge mask. It covers the eyes, the entire nose, all of the cheekbones and all of the forehead, and is as wide as the face ( _temples fully covered_ ). The famous ‘Phantom of the Opera’ mask is a doge/half mask. 
> 

> 
> Adrien assumes that Papillon has figured out who HE is because in his mind, Ladybug is the clever and cautious one, she’d never do anything to lead Papillon to who she is – he also doesn’t suspect that she’s IN HIS CLASS – thus, this very VERY odd behavior from Papillon must be that Adrien has somehow messed up and now Papillon has figured it all out.  
> Trust me, Marinette is having the EXACT same thought process ( _Papillon must have figured out who I really am!_ ) behind Adrien. Also, Tikki used the same trick Plagg did – she told Marinette to tell her what she liked about fashion and design so Marinette answered THAT instead of blurting out ‘I’m Ladybug’… I sadly did not have a way to have Adrien hear Tikki doing this without giving the ‘game’ away… and since this chapter pretty much had to be from Adrien’s POV, there was no way to show Tikki helping Marinette the way Plagg helped Adrien.
> 
> There was a lot of last minute math done in this chapter. Most of it boiled down to HOW BIG IS THAT CLASSROOM?? so I knew the distances between the characters for Sans Sheriff’s attacks to cover the room as a whole, the space between characters and… a small detail about Adrien that will crop up next chapter that is tied to Sans Sheriff.  
> There was a lot of “okay the type of table seen is USUALLY 2 meters/6 feet long so that gives me a measuring stick… The space between the tables, and the space between the tables and the walls is about a half meter/3 feet each… making the room about 7 meters/23 feet wide. It LOOKS to be about 3 times as long as it is wide, making it 21 meters/69 feet long…” and so on.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so… I have severe joint problems IRL. This is relevant because my hip dislocated earlier this week and the end result was a lot of cursing, a lot of pain, and a lot of torn muscles-ligaments-tendons. This means that I haven’t been able to sit and write the last few days and I’m running out of buffer as a result…  
> There MIGHT be a delay of 4-8 days (hopefully not longer than that) after Chapter 12 goes up on the 22nd. I’m hoping to be able to write soon, but… I’m kinda in a lot of pain IRL. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about the possible delay. Sorry all! :/

Tell us about yourself, huh? …Alright, that gave him more wiggle room then he’d been expecting.

He closed his eyes for a second and let out his breath slowly, raising the barrier between himself and his emotions, and letting the ‘model’ mask fall between himself and the world… leaving HIM, that small core that was who he REALLY was, standing between two bulwarks – one guarding him from himself, one guarding him from the world, both leaving him standing alone. 

He opened his eyes and slowly got to his feet, and shifted his stance to his best ‘naturally casual’ modeling pose, the one he mentally labelled ‘ _No worries because I don’t care_ ’ and Vincent called ‘ _You have a plate of spaghetti and it’s tasty but it’s not your momma’s_ ’. 

“…Adrien, what the hell are you doing?” Nino hissed, grabbing Adrien’s wrist as if to pull him back to the seat, fear in his eyes. 

“Telling the truth,” he said with a small, casual, shrug. He couldn’t let the mask or barrier fall, not even to reassure his best friend. 

A small part of him wondered if it was the fact that he was acting so casual in front of an Akumatized supervillain, which was likely to draw her ire at best, that was worrying Nino so much… 

Or if it was how distant… ( _no, he could be honest with himself, how cold and emotionless_ ) the ‘Model Agreste’ mask was. Nino… knew Adrien. He knew Adrien probably better than anyone else… and was one of the only people besides Plagg, and once upon a time Chloé, who Adrien could drop all his masks with and just be… himself. Not his father’s porcelain doll, not the perfect model, not ‘the studious polite schoolboy’… not even the flashy, ostentatious ‘superhero’. Just… who he really was. 

“There’s not much of interest about Adrien Agreste,” he said, turning his attention to Sans Sheriff. He shifted his shoulders back slightly and considered her expression ( _What little he could see, given the white half-mask_ ). 

Confused, but calculating. He could work with that. Polite was probably better than distant. 

“I live in at 12 Avenue Victoria, 75001, Madame Sans Sheriff, in the 1st arrondissement with my Père. No other family now, not many friends, about 20 staff members if you include my bodyguard and my Père’s assistant for the household.” 

He wished he could clasp his hands behind his back, being able to hide his hands always helped him with keeping the Barrier and Mask up. But he couldn’t try to shake his arm free from where Nino still held his wrist. Doing that might shake ADRIEN loose from this terrifyingly difficult to maintain false calm. 

“What do you…” Sans Sheriff trailed off into silence for a moment, tilting her head as the Mark of Papillon flared to life. “No, no… Papillon, I need you to clarify…” she mumbled 

Was she… asking Papillon for more information? Treating this LOGICALLY? 

… 

She had made no real threat, done no real harm but now, in the moment of facing down a Champion who seemed to be operating at an almost NORMAL mentality instead of deeply lost to dream logic, Adrien was more afraid of Sans Sheriff then he had ever been of any other Champion. 

Was it because she hadn’t been that angry when she’d been Akumatized? Or had he ACTUALLY been right at the end of Lunch break in what he thought he’d seen? Had Papillon had the Akuma lying in wait? And if so, was THAT the factor that had changed the equation? 

Adrien felt Plagg dig his claws into his chest again, even as Nino’s hand clenched painfully tight on his wrist, and he realized that he’d started to panic again… or at least let the panic start to show. 

_Hyperventilating doesn’t help anyone, Adrien._

The words echoed in his head, and with them the memory of about a year ago… of an ice cold voice snapping, of fingers digging painfully into his shoulders, forcing him to focus on HER instead of the yawning gap of grief and panic. Of pressing against the rock climbing wall in his room, of how the shaped grips had dug into his back. Of artic blue eyes boring into his own, forcing him to focus and staying there until he’d cycled back out of the panic attack… 

_BREATHE, Adrien. Stop being stupid and just follow the pattern. I thought you liked constants._

In. Hold. Out. 

In. Hold. Out. Keep it subtle so no one could tell. 

In. Hold. Out. Don’t let the chest rise and fall too much, don’t let the breathe whistle on the way out. 

In. Hold. Out. Focus on the Barrier and the Mask, don’t let them fall. 

In. Hold. Out. Focus on the supervillain having a soft conversation with a distant enemy. 

In. Hold. Out. You are needed here and now. 

In. 

Hold. 

Out. 

Sans Sheriff’s eyes refocused and she returned her gaze to Adrien. “What do with your time, Adrien Agreste?” 

“Many things, Madame. My Père allowed me to start going to public school this year, and I still have my previous extracurricular activities such as Mandarin, Fencing and Piano.” 

Adrien took a slow breath in. Time to test the ‘Speak the Truth’. “I also model for my Père’s company, I enjoy doing so…” he let his eyes drop and shrugged one shoulder, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand as if embarrassed. 

The ‘Speak the Truth’ had worn off. 

“And enjoy being able to help out my Père, although… Well, speaking the truth… all of that combined it doesn’t really leave me much free time, or energy…” he glanced back up and met Sans Sheriff’s eyes, finishing with a healthy dollop of honesty to hopefully throw her, and Papillon, off his trail. “I haven’t told my Père how often I’m tired or hungry… I don’t want him to worry.” 

Sans Sheriff’s head snapped to the side as the Mark of Papillon suddenly flared to life, the motion sharp enough to make the delicate wings on her back shift and sway, and she raised one hand to lightly press her fingers against the mask. “There is no need to shout, Papillon,” she offered in a calm tone. “Surely now that you are aware, the matter can be addressed.” 

Um. …What? 

…What had he said? What had he MISSED? What was GOING ON right now? 

Also, could he reiterate that ‘calm and sane’ was far FAR more terrifying than ANYTHING ELSE?! 

… 

Alright, not as bad as Princess Fragrance, or- he couldn’t help the shudder that went through him at even the thought of them- Dislocœur and Puppeteer. But definitely worse than any NORMAL Champion. 

The Mark of Papillon slowly faded, and Sans Sheriff returned her gaze to Adrien. “One last question for you, Adrien, and then once I speak to the rest of the class, we will be done and I will stand-down as Champion.” 

Okay… maybe the day would be saved by carefully edging around the truth by telling the truth and without a single blow exchanged? 

… 

Ladybug was never going to believe this. 

“What is the question, Madame Sans Sheriff?” 

“What is the ring you wear?” 

Oooorrrrrr he could be completely screwed. 

“My… ring?” Adrien couldn’t help the glance down at his right hand. 

“Yes. From where- or who- did you receive it?” 

So utterly utterly screwed. Come on Ladybug, please come NOW instead of later and save the day… he really, REALLY, needed someone to save the day right NOW because he had no IDEA how to edge around this one without flat-out lying and while partial truths and lying-by-truthing seemed to work, he was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be able to get a flat-out lie to pass muster! 

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

> **Notes** ( _Which were too long for the notes block_ ):  
>  On ‘the Barrier and the Mask’. These are skill sets that Adrien CANONICALLY has. We see it in Climatika when Vincent, his photographer, is telling him to emote, and how to emote. 
> 
> Adrien’s mother is a delicate topic for Adrien. He doesn’t talk about her outside of ‘Adrien’s Double Life’ and ‘Jackaday’ and both make it obvious that he had a strong connection to her and is still impacted by her being gone. Yet when told to smile like ‘his mom is bringing him a plate of spagetti’… he does so. He does so very well given Vincent ( _who seems to be strict and focused-look at his reaction to Adrien ‘breaking mask’ to smile and wave at his friends, or to Manon’s short outburst_ ) is calling ‘Nice! Nice!’ and ‘Bravo!’ Which means Adrien very expertly detached himself from his own feelings and shoved them aside ( _the Barrier_ ), while he delivering the precise emotions of required of him (the Mask). None of what we see him doing during the Climatika photoshoot is ADRIEN ( _outside of his tiny smile and wave_ ), it’s all ‘Model Agreste’. Which means that pretty much EVERY picture we see of Adrien modeling is the same thing. That isn’t Adrien, that’s the Mask, yes, even the ones when he’s jumping in the air smiling happily. I’ve a cousin who is a fitness model, you don’t want to know how many takes that ‘happy/ candid’ picture likely took. 
> 
> Adrien is a person of… many masks. As Sharm pointed out, Adrien thinks having a persona to interact with the world is just how you do things, it suits how he was raised and how he is surprised by some of the ways normal people interact.  
>  There’s the ‘perfect porcelain son doll’ mask that he wears at home, and has for YEARS (possibly even while his mother was alive), there’s ‘Gabriel Fashion Line Model’ mask, there’s ‘Agreste Jr-the perfect polite son’ that he wears in public (the ‘perfect student’ is a variant of this), there’s the ‘friend’ mask that he initially wore around Nino that he based off the anime/films he watched although he seems to have overall dropped that mask and is himself around Nino, there’s the ‘dashing superhero’ mask he tends to wear as Chat Noir where he flirts, shows off and plays to the crowd… and then under all of that is the ‘real’ kid, which we really only get to see when he’s Chat Noir and is serious, distracted or off-balance… we get glimpses of it as Adrien when he interacts with Plagg or when an Akuma attack begins or the like, and the occasional glimpse of it when he’s hanging out with Nino.  
>  In that case while 'Chat Noir' might be his current closest to 'real'.. it's still a persona/mask, but it's the one that he feels most like... and he enjoys being 'himself' so much that he acts out. Because he actually behaves TWO ways as Chat Noir. There's the dashing hero who flirts and shows off and plays to the crowd (the 'hero' mask)  
>  and then there's how he acts when he's serious, or distracted, or off balance... and while that is still 'Chat Noir'... I think that might be the 'maskless' version... the real kid minus persona masks. Because he acts like that in his few unguarded moments with Plagg, but we don't see it anywhere else. 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
> 
> Okay so… Adrien’s address. ( _I know we see an address on the Valentine Card, but it puts it at the nonexistent 21st arrondissement… which even if it DID exist would put all of them on the OUTSKIRTS of Paris rather than at the heart (near Notre Dame) where they obviously are ‘in reality’. So… Sorry Astruc, but **‘I reject your reality and substitute my own!’**_ ) 
> 
> You know that gold winged statue on a pillar that we see out in front of Adrien’s house ( _and Le Grande Paris_ ) ALL THE TIME?! 
> 
> Yeah, that’s Fontaine du Palmier/Fontaine du Châtelet. It’s right on the border between the 1st and 4th arrondissements… and the buildings that ACTUALLY face it are Théâtre du Châtelet ( _which is the larger building, to the west_ ) and Théâtre de la Ville ( _which is the smaller building, to the east_ ) and Chambre Des Notaires De Paris ( _pointed building to the north_ ), and right across the river from Notre Dame. The first two are two VERY FAMOUS THEATRES. o.0 
> 
> ( _Trust me there was much head tilting the first time I saw the Fontaine du Palmier in front of Adrien’s house and Le Grande Paris CONSISTENTLY and not from the ‘what is that even doing there’ way that the Eiffel Tower is, but more like the other ‘realistic-ish layout of local’ backgrounds that we get occasionally_ ) 
> 
> SO… In Miraculous verse… There is no Chambre Des Notaires De Paris or Théâtre de la Ville it seems…. Chambre Des Notaires De Paris has been replaced by the Agreste Mansion, Théâtre de la Ville has been replaced by Le Grande Paris… and given that Théâtre de la Ville at least is a protected landmark… In Miraculiverse we likely can assume that Chambre Des Notaires De Paris and Théâtre de la Ville never existed. 
> 
> That puts Adrien’s address as “12 Avenue Victoria, 75001” in the 1st arrondissement ( _replacing Chambre Des Notaires De Paris in this reality _). It also gives us the address of Le Grande Paris as “2 Place du Châtelet, 75004” in the 4th arrondissement ( _replacing Théâtre de la Ville in this reality_ ). __
> 
> Related to this… We know that Marinette’s home is right across the Seine from Notre Dame’s South Side, right next to a park… and is a corner building. Which ends up giving us Marinette’s address as well. 21 Quai de Montebello, 75005 in the 5th arrondissement ( _replacing Café Panis in this reality_ ) And yes, I know that we're given her address in show as 12 Rue Gottlieb... but said street doesn't exist (it's an artist's name) and it'd again put her in the non-existent 21st arrondissement... so I figured if I was ignoring Adrien's 'in show' address to give him a 'Real' address, I should do so for Marinette as well. ^^ … also, that is a SIZABLE house for a family living in Paris, esp considering it’s location. Either ‘ **Tom and Sabine are bakers with no compare** ’ *OR* ‘ **one (or both) of them inherited a sizable chunk of money** ’… given how famous Sabine’s uncle is, I lean towards ‘ **Sabine actually comes from money and invested her inheritance VERY wisely and at least half of the household income is said investments** ’. This gives the family the ability to own the entire building as they seem to, Marinette has her VERY LARGE loft room and balcony, the family is obviously not hurting for funds and Tom and Sabine can experiment with things like an Eiffel Tower cake AND have a shop that sells both bread and pastries, something that ( _being neither fish nor fowl_ ) usually doesn’t do as well as a specialty shop. ( _Actually pretty much all of the kids are likely from well to do families… heck, Alya’s mom is a head chef at one of the ‘best’ hotels in Paris, that is a HIGH PAYING JOB. Sabrina’s dad is obviously a high ranking police officer given what we see him get up to and, again, that means it pays well_ ) 
> 
> ( _Side note: In Origins 1 when Mari hooks Notre Dame and goes SAILING North and crashes into Chat? For that to happen all Chat would have to do would have been to head EAST from his home and he’d be right where Mari landed_ ) 
> 
> I put the school at 28 Rue Saint-Jacques, 75005 in the 5th arrondissement ( _replacing Elementary School Mairie De Paris in this reality_ ). It’s not ‘across the street’ from Marinette’s BUT it is within 4 minutes at a walking pace along the streets. Less ( _closer to 2 minutes_ ) if you cut through the park and sprint like Mari is wont to do. 
> 
> That also puts it at 10 minutes driving, 11 minutes walking from both Chloé and Adrien’s homes, which overall fits with what we’ve seen in canon. 
> 
> …The Eiffel Tower is WAAAAAAAY over there *waves to the west* by the way. Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 in the 7th arrondissement. It’s 10-15 minutes driving time from Marinette’s home, and about 40 minutes walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien panics… but this time instead of letting his emotions get the better of him and thus getting flustered… thanks to Plagg’s quick advice Adrien basically goes into ‘shut down/model mode’…


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeeeah, my leg is still giving me massive grief… Chapter 13 will go up sometime between the 24th and the 30th. I’ll try for sooner rather than later :/ Sorry everyone

“Oh, ADRIHONEY!”

Adrien jumped and barely managed to suppress a yelp when Chloé suddenly threw her arms around him. 

“You’re WEARING IT!” 

…What? 

Chloé grabbed his right hand and held it up, admiring his Miraculous. She made a tiny pleased noise. “I told you, didn’t I? You’re just one of those lucky people who can wear silver just as well as you wear gold!” 

What was this day? 

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice it! …ugh, I TOLD YOU to let me buy you something more flashy, I just don’t understand why you always want such PLAIN things – but still!” 

Chloé aimed a smile that would no doubt make a wolverine cut and run over Adrien’s shoulder at Marinette. 

…Okay, he was confused, was Chloé rescuing him or just using Adrien as ammunition in her never-ending battle with Marinette? 

“Chloé Bourgeois,” Sans Sheriff said in a strict tone of voice. Her fingers danced over her tablet, and everyone in the class tensed. Adrien couldn’t help but wince as Nino’s hand clenched painfully tight on his left wrist and Chloé’s fingers dug into his right arm. Yuuuuup he was gonna have bruises, if not a sprained wrist. 

Sans Sheriff made a sharp throwing gesture, and “ ** _Tell the Truth_** ” washed over the class. 

Oh NO… 

“Are you saying that YOU gave Adrien the ring that he wears?” 

For a split second, there was silence, Chloé staring at Sans Sheriff with wide, terrified, eyes, still clinging to Adrien’s arm, pressing up against his side as if she could somehow hide. 

“I believe I asked you a QUESTION, Mademoiselle Bourgeois,” Sans Sheriff said, taking one measured step closer, her white dress brushing over the floor. 

A step too close, it turned out, as Adrien felt an annoyingly familiar itch start up at the back of his throat, spreading into his mouth and nose. His eyes darted to Sans Sheriff’s delicate feathered wings. He’d HOPED, with how he hadn’t sneezed yet, that maybe with the feathers being ‘magic’ that they wouldn’t trigger his allergies like the very normal, if magic-controlled, pigeons of Monsieur Pigeon had… but it looked like it’d only been that she was just far enough away not to trigger his allergies. He sneezed, rocking back on his feet slightly. 

The Mark of Papillon flared to life, even as Sans Sheriff looked at him in confusion. A moment later her eyes widened and she took a step back, then another. 

…What? Did- …He’d been sneezing like crazy the whole time they’d fought Monsieur Pigeon, and by the end his chest and head had been stuffy and both he and Ladybug has been fairly certain EVERYONE, including Papillon, had been well aware of his stupid allergy. Had… Had he just proven who he really was to Papillon? He was racked by another sneeze. Stupid STUPID allergy! 

But Sans Sheriff didn’t ask about the sneeze. Instead she turned her gaze back to Chloé. “Mademoiselle Bourgeois? You will answer me. Now.” 

Adrien shifted his weight forward, trying to get the Akumatized woman’s attention off his oldest friend. “Leave her alone.” 

Sans Sheriff’s eyes snapped to Adrien and narrowed. “Why do you defend her?” 

“Because Chloé’s my friend,” Adrien answered without hesitation. “I protect my friends.” 

Chloé glanced up at him, eyes wide. Adrien could feel EVERYONE staring at him, shocked. 

Well… she was. He was often angry or annoyed at her, he hated how nasty she acted in school, and he REALLY hated it when she manipulated or hurt people… but she was still his friend. So there. He was racked by yet another massive sneeze, and now Sans Sheriff was staring at him with a CONSIDERING expression. 

The Mark of Papillon flared again. “Yes, Papillon. …Back to the matter at hand. Chloé, are you saying that YOU gave Adrien the ring?” 

Chloé took a sharp breath in and closed her eyes, settling herself… and then looked at Sans Sheriff with a haughty expression that belied just how tightly she clutched at Adrien’s arm. “I don’t see why my buying Adrihoney a gift would be surprising,” Chloé said, giving her head a small toss. “I’ve bought him hundreds of gifts over the years, just like he’s done for me.” 

“That is not-” 

“And after all the work I put into helping him get signed up for school, and assigned to my class and distracting his Père into signing the paperwork when Adrien couldn’t, would it really be surprising that I bought him a few nice little gifts to celebrate our victory?” 

Sans Sheriff’s head snapped to the side HARD this time as the Mark of Papillon flared to life yet AGAIN… hard enough that she staggered to the side and almost tripped on the teal sash that trailed from her arms. 

Adrien found himself being stared at by Nino and Chloé, and couldn’t help but shrug. He had no clue what was going on. 

When then continued to stare, he realized that Plagg was GROWLING ever so softly. 

Could they… was it loud enough that they could hear it?! Shouldn’t the Glamour prevent that?! 

Or- 

He suddenly realized that the ragged breathing he was starting to hear was his own. 

…okay they might be staring because he was starting to lose his grip on the Barrier and the Mask which meant HE was starting to panic despite his best efforts… 

He wanted out of here. He wanted to get OUT of here right NOW. 

… 

Time to do what the bank robbery driver lady had done and pull a Plan F. 

Adrien ducked slightly and grabbed the end of the table… and braced. Nino’s eyes went wide- 

And then Nino grabbed the table as well. 

A split second later the table was airborne and headed straight at Sans Sheriff, who was sent crashing back into the desk. 

“RUN!” Adrien snapped at the rest of the class, and grabbed Nino with one hand and Chloé with the other and dragged them both out behind him. 

He’d just flipped a desk into an Akumatized Champion. That had to be the stupidest thing he’d ever done. There was NO WAY he was leaving the two people Sans Sheriff was most likely to go after in retaliation behind. 

The rest of the class surged out of the room behind him and scattered. Adrien kept running, heading down the stairs and towards the door that lead to the school’s basement rather than trying to make a break for the entrance like he could see Kim and Max, among others, doing. 

The basement was a twisty catacomb, he could get Nino and Chloé somewhere hidden and safe, then head back up to transform and fight. 

Down and deep and through the twists and past the boiler room where they’d fought Horrificator. He’d let go of Chloé and Nino’s wrists the second he’d gotten them into the basement, but he kept glancing back to check that he hadn’t lost them, and to check that Sans Sheriff hadn’t found them. 

It made him feel a little bit better that they looked just as panicked as he felt, and both kept checking back over their shoulders, just as worried that Sans Sheriff was about to find them. 

Alright, this should work. Adrien slowed to a stop and let Chloé shove at him until he leaned against the wall in the tiny out of the way alcove deep in the basement and tried to both catch his breath and calm himself down a bit. 

…And finally realized that Nino and Chloé were snarling and snapping at each other. When had THAT started? Just from what their body language and their tone, it sounded like it’d been going on for a while now. 

Long enough that it was starting to get really nasty. 

“Stop it.” 

He sounded calm. That surprised him, he didn’t FEEL calm. 

Him speaking up caught both Nino and Chloé off guard and they turned to look at him as if surprised. 

… 

He’d been the topic of the discussion, hadn’t he? 

“Why did you have to bring HIM?” Chloé muttered, crossing her arms and aiming a glare at Nino, who returned the glare. 

“Because he’s my best friend.” 

Nino lost his scowl at that and looked over at Adrien, smiling. “Thanks, Bro.” 

…What EXACTLY had they been saying to each other while he hadn’t been paying attention? 

“No, he’s not, *I’M* your friend.” 

“I can have more than one friend, Chloé.” 

Chloé’s hands clenched on her arms. “Don’t be so sure about that, he’ll probably abandon you the second collège is over.” 

“Chloé,” Adrien snapped. He dragged a hand through his hair. “You don’t have to be so cruel to drive everyone away from me!” he waved his arms wildly when Chloé aimed a scowl at him. 

Nino took a half step back. “Yeah, okay, I am not getting in the middle of this. I know ancient feuds when I see them,” he muttered. 

“You aren’t going to lose me!” Adrien snapped, his voice rising when he saw the look on Chloé’s face. He KNEW that look. He knew Chloé. “I will never abandon you, Chloé! I’M NOT HER!!” 

Adrien’s eyes went wide, hands clawing in front of him before slapping over his mouth as if he could somehow drag the words out of the air and stuff them back in, as if he could unsay it. 

Chloé gasped, covering her mouth with both of her hands as she stared at Adrien, both of them frozen in horror. 

Adrien ran. 

“ADRIEN!” Nino took off after his best friend. “What the hell just-! Adrien, come back! THE SUPERVILLAIN IS STILL OUT THERE! **GET BACK HERE!!** ” 

In less than a second, both were out of sight… In less than a minute, Chloé couldn’t hear anything but the echoes of Nino’s voice anymore. Hands still pressed over her mouth in horror, she slowly sank to the floor, and started to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien managed to buy himself the time he needed, but when he sneezes HE thinks he just gave Papillon the proof he needed and loses his hold on the tiny bit of calm he’s managed to give himself, starts to cycle into a panic attack and just... goes for broke-hence him going from ‘all is well, situation under control’ to FLIPPING THE TABLE AT THE ENEMY ( _granted, Chloé was NOT the girl he was expecting to leap to his defense… he thought he was stalling for LADYBUG, not Chloé, because honestly who would expect Chloé to come to the rescue?_ )
> 
> Chloé came to Adrien’s ‘rescue’ for a few reasons. Partially it was to get some ammunition in her ongoing battle with Marinette. Partially it was to help her friend. Partially it was just to claim that the ring Adrien ALWAYS WEARS is a gift from/connection to Chloé in front of the whole class, plus a few other factors. 
> 
> And on the ‘signature’ line… Getting one’s self assigned to school takes a LOT of time, and requires a metric ton of paperwork. Paperwork that REQUIRES SIGNATURES. Getting assigned to a very specific school AND class takes even more time, paperwork and effort. Adrien is good at long term planning, we know this from the show… but we also know that his father was NOT ‘in the loop’ nor did he approve of Adrien going to school. …but in order for Adrien to go, THE PAPERWORK MUST HAVE BEEN SIGNED. 
> 
> And Chloé was obviously *IN* on this plan, she’s expecting Adrien, she knows where he’ll sit and that he’ll be in her class, she’s worried ( _then angry, then worried again_ ) when he doesn’t show, and while she’s DELIGHTED to see him the next day, she is not surprised.
> 
> So, Occam’s Razor. 
> 
> If Chloé was involved in the planning for school, she’s the one most likely to have been able to somehow get Gabriel to sign something without realizing it ( _she is VERY good at distracting people and she likely used a meeting between her father and Gabriel as cover_ ). She and Adrien had, at bare minimum, ALL SUMMER to set up Adrien starting school, and she was just as determined for him to go to public school as Adrien was ( _if for different primary reasons_ ). So… yeah. I headcanon that Chloé was involved in Adrien getting signed up at the school, and specifically was the one that tricked Gabriel into signing the paperwork without looking at it.
> 
> And yes, the reason in Chapter 2 I had Max use the line about Plan F ( _even in the original draft, before Max took over the plot_ ) was specifically so that Adrien would have an idea of what to do HERE AND NOW- the boy is NOT good with in-the-moment planning.
> 
> Oh, and the reason the basement of the school is a twisty catacomb is because apparently the basement of the Collège most of my family in Paris went to WAS a labyrinthine affair that people actually got lost in once or twice, and one cousin managed to end up a block or two away and into a church basement because the basements of various buildings were linked… And he was just trying to find the boiler because he wanted to share his lunch with his uncle, who was the school maintenance man. ( _Apparently this was a shock to my cousin, our uncle and the poor Nun who happened to be cleaning when my cousin accidently snuck up on her_ )


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, leg is still a massive pain... BUT I managed to get the chapter written and have a fair bit of 14 done. I'm hoping to return to posting every other day... wish me luck!!

Alya was really annoyingly strong, Marinette decided as her friend kept an iron grip on Marinette’s wrist, as the school’s fire alarm blared and students poured out of their classrooms and out of the school while Principal Damocles ordered an ‘Akuma Evacuation’ over the school’s intercom.

Someone must have pulled the alarm on their way out, Marinette figured… and either the same person or someone else had run to tell the Principal about what had happened. After more than eight months of Papillon’s Champions attacking, the school- both staff and students- had what to do during a supervillain’s attack down almost to a science. 

Alya pulled Marinette along the second floor’s railing lined open hallway that lined the outer rim of the school’s courtyard. Marinette stumbled for a second, her bookbag almost falling off her shoulder, as she tried to look towards the entrance of the school as Alya kept pulling her along. 

She thought… but that couldn’t have been Chat she saw sneaking OUT the main entrance… Maybe it was just someone wearing black clothing and she’d just… imagined the belt-tail because she wanted her partner to get here since she herself couldn’t get away to transform yet as Alya moved to get into a place where she could livestream the battle that was certain to happen. 

Or so Alya thought, because Alya was expecting LADYBUG and Chat Noir to drop in and save the day. 

Marinette tried to tug her wrist free. 

Unfortunately, Ladybug was a little STUCK right now! 

She ducked behind the railing, grabbing Alya’s bookbag and pulling her friend down out of sight as well as Sans Sheriff came out of the classroom, looking more than a little rumpled and very, VERY, angry. “I can’t believe Adrien flipped a TABLE at someone,” Marinette admitted quietly. 

“Hey, Nino helped with the epic table flipping,” Alya pointed out. She ducked a little further behind the railing when Sans Sheriff turned and looked their way, although she kept her phone’s camera juuuuuuust above the stone so she could keep recording. 

“Look away, look away, look away…” Marinette muttered. “Alya, we have to get OUT of here, it’s not safe!” Sans Sheriff was looking right at the camera, that couldn’t be a good thing. Why did Alya have to be so fearless? She didn’t have an ( _admittedly only MOSTLY_ ) invulnerable suit, or enhanced abilities and reflexes… she was just… a normal person. As she waited, heart frozen, for Sans Sheriff to turn away and stop focusing on them, Marinette made a mental note to try to talk to Alya about this… as Marinette first, then she’d try to see if she could get Chat to talk to Alya since the cat and reporter were friends now… and if Alya still kept putting herself in danger, Marinette would bring in the big guns of Ladybug… 

Marinette’s heart started up when Sans Sheriff finally looked away and looked… Marinette risked a quick peak over the railing before ducking back down to safety. At the door to the basement? Why would she be looking- no, heading. On the screen of Alya’s phone the two girls watched as Sans Sheriff walked down the stairs and began to cross the courtyard, obviously heading for the basement door. The two girls carefully peaked over the railing again, both of them frowning. 

“...Why is she-?” Marinette couldn’t help but ask 

Alya’s frown got deeper and she let go of Marinette’s wrist, shrugging off her bookbag and letting it fall near her feet and then grabbing the phone with both hands to steady it as she zoomed in. “Shoot. I thought she hadn’t seen that.” Alya looked up at the school’s roof, then bit her lip. 

“Seen what?” 

“Adrien, Nino and Chloé went down into the basement to hide. …Don’t know why. I mean I can guess but- …I was really hoping Sans Sheriff hadn’t seen that.” 

Marinette set her jaw and began to carefully edge away from Alya while her friend was distracted. She had to get away NOW, before it was too la- 

A black shape dropped out of the sky and landed solidly on Sans Sheriff, slamming the Akumatized supervillain into the concrete of the courtyard. 

“WHOO!! Way to go, Chat!” Alya cheered, hopping to her feet and punching a fist in the air. 

Marinette got to her feet as well and stared down at the courtyard, where her partner was leaping away from the downed Sans Sheriff ( _probably to avoid triggering his allergies_ ) and couldn’t help but laugh in relief. “Chat! You saw the livestream!?” 

Chat Noir risked a quick glance at the two girls, and offered a quick, casual, two-fingered salute, then returned his attention to Sans Sheriff. “Sorry it took me so long, ladies… Had to cross a fair bit of the city to get here.” he hooked a thumb upwards. “But that’s what long distance pole-vaulting is good for, no?” 

Marinette looked up, remembering the angle Chat had dropped from, and put it together with what she knew of his tendency of pole vaulting long distances. …He’d actually come in pretty shallow, all things considered… so… Marinette’s grip on the math required to figure it out failed her. “You… what… were in the 20th arrondissement or something?!” 

Chat actually fell out of his combat stance and looked up at Marinette with a confused expression. “I… what?” 

Sans took advantage of his distraction to get back up to her feet and start typing on her tablet. 

“How did… The 20th is in the opposite direction of where I… I mean, I was… but- How do you math that badly!?” 

“WATCH OUT!” 

Chat dove blindly to the side at the shouted warning, and only just managed to dodge a ‘ ** _Cease all movement_** ’ from Sans Sheriff. 

“What- Hey, how precise are those commands!? Because BREATHING is moving you know! And my blood and heart and lungs and diaphragm and a bunch of other stuff need to move!!” Chat leapt forward and landed a kick on Sans Sheriff, then leapt away again. He glanced over his shoulder, making certain no one had been behind him to get caught in that order. “What if I hadn’t dodged? What if it had hit someone else!? Do you even know how PAINFUL that sort of death is!?” 

The Mark of Papillon flared to life before Sans Sheriff’s eyes in perfect sync with Marinette’s worry. 

“No, I do not know. …Do you know, Chat Noir?” 

Chat stared, flabbergasted. “What… even- You know what, I’m not answering that. Bad guys do not get to express concern over my health and/or over possible death experiences! If I even had them! Which I totally have NOT!” 

“You haven’t?!” Marinette asked, relieved. 

Chat’s gaze darted back up to her, and he flailed his arms. “WHAT EVEN IS THIS DAY?!” 

“Chat! Look out!” Alya yelped. 

A second too late, as ‘ ** _Speak the Truth_** ’ washed over the distracted, flailing cat, who’s eyes instantly went wide in terror and he slapped both hands over his mouth, backing away from Sans Sheriff as fast as he could, his mouth moving as the phrasing forced him to speak whatever truth first came to his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My general assumption is that Mari is AVERAGE at math. She isn’t bad at it, but the math required to figure out angles and distances for city-wide pole vaulting is something that most people require a calculator, or at least a sheet of paper for! ^_^ ( _I am WRETCHED at math IRL for example. Great with language, decent with design, basic understanding of sciences, REALLY good at history and anatomy. Can not math to save my life._ ) 
> 
> On top of that, clothing design and the like actually requires VERY LITTLE in the way of math… More than most expect, but still not a ton in total, and most of it is fairly basic algebra/geometry level stuff. Mari is likely quite good at the math she NEEDS/uses… just not the more advanced stuff that she has no need for in her day to day life. 
> 
> Most of Adrien’s reaction ( _how do you math that badly?!_ ) is due to the fact that he likely COULD do the math required to figure out the factors of his supposed pole vault in his head… and he forgets that not everyone is as good at physics/maths as he is.


	14. Chapter 14

Even muffled by his hands, and as far away as she and Alya were on the other side of the courtyard, Marinette could still hear the statement of “I love Ladybug more than my life itself.”

That… he… Oh no, he was- He really MEANT it, the flirting wasn’t just a JOKE?! How could it not be a joke it was so stupidly over the top and corny and- Marinette closed her eyes and shoved the panic down, deep into her belly. Not now, deal with stupid romantic cats and everything related later. 

Freaking out could wait until after she got down there, helped her partner, defeated the supervillain and de-evilized the Akuma. 

Marinette bit her lip and glanced at Alya, who was apparently fully distracted now, she grabbed her backpack then began to back up quickly and quietly. As soon as she was out of Alya’s line of sight, Marinette spun and ran for the door to the nearest classroom to transform. She had to get into the fight NOW. 

In the courtyard, Sans Sheriff’s eyes narrowed and she advanced towards Chat Noir. “Who are you REALLY?” Sans Sheriff demanded. 

Alya cursed and whipped the phone around. “Where ARE you, Ladybug?!” she demanded of the empty sky… and ‘accidentally’ stopped the live-stream halfway through her question. She’d managed to do that a few times before… actually on accident, but at least in her early days of recording she’d sometimes hit the wrong part of the phone with a thumb or finger so at least no one should suspect the feed cutting out… or at least would believe the ‘sorry, hit the power button’ excuse she’d give later when she ‘realized what she’d accidentally done’. 

And maybe. Just maybe, no one else was in earshot or at least no one else was RECORDING… 

Down in the courtyard, Chat’s eyes went wide in terror, even as he opened his mouth and answered. 

“I’m Chat Noir.” 

…Or he could… Alya blinked. He could do that. HOW was he doing that? She was going to grill him for answers once all this was over. 

“No! No, who are you REALLY?!” Sans Sheriff demanded, fingers typing madly before the words ‘ ** _Tell the Truth_** ’, hit Chat Noir. 

“Chat Noir is who I really am,” Chat answered calmly, the fear leaving his eyes as he relaxed. 

“No. Your REAL name. What is your REAL name!?” 

Chat shrugged, starting to smile. “...The Black Cat? …mau km? … hei mao? …cat dubh? …nigrum cattus? …gatto nero? …chernaya koshka?” 

“What… NO!” Sans Sheriff scowled at the now grinning Chat Noir. This was NOT the expected result. “Tell me your-!” 

_Vhiiizzz_!!! 

Ladybug's yoyo raced down from the roof and smacked into Sans Sheriff’s mask, knocking her off her feet and into the wall behind her. Chat’s eyes went wide and he took a step back, caught off guard. He turned to watch the yoyo as it retracted, and he had just enough time to register Ladybug’s silhouette on the rooftop before Ladybug cast her yoyo again- 

And caught Chat Noir about the chest, making the black clad hero’s eyes go wide. A tug later and Chat was yanked off his feet and up to the rooftop. Ladybug grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him so that they were out of sight and hidden away behind the school’s air conditioning units. 

“Ladybug, whaMMMph?!” 

Chat Noir glanced down at the hand clamped over his mouth as best he could, then blinked at Ladybug, tilting his head in silent question. 

Ladybug took a second to crane her neck to see what Sans Sheriff was doing. 

The super-villain was regaining her feet and staring up at the rooftop and… heading over to the basement door. 

…Which fortunately turned out to be locked, if the way it failed to even budge when Sans Sheriff tried to open it was any indicator. Alright. That bought them a few seconds at least. She looked back to Chat Noir, who was still blinking at her in confusion. 

“Sorry! I know you got hit with the truth word thingy. ...and I know this isn't really fair for me to ask because of that, but just nod or shake your head. Are you gonna be okay?" 

Chat’s confusion cleared and he smiled. He reached up with one hand and gently pulled Ladybug’s hand away from his mouth. “I really am okay, my Lady. I am myself, I just… have to tell the ungarnished truth at the moment. I can work around it, just… don’t ask me anything you don’t want to know the answer to.” 

He pulled her hand up and kissed her knuckles. “Thank you for thinking of me and how I might feel with… matters like this.” 

Ladybug felt her cheeks heat up in a blush and she snatched her hand out of Chat’s loose grip and booped his nose with her finger tip, pushing him away more out of habit than anything. She laughed when Chat grabbed his nose with his fingertips and gave it a small wriggle, smiling broadly down at her. 

"Okay. Let's go get the tablet!" 

Chat Noir nodded. “What’s the plan, my Lady?” 

“Can you drop down, get in from the main entrance while I attack from up here?” 

Chat smiled. “Yup.” And with that he leapt off the building, landing lightly on the street below and dashing off towards the school’s main entrance. 

Ladybug shook her head and carefully crept to the edge of the roof, then gathered herself up and leapt to the side, landing on her feet, ready to dodge any incoming attacks. 

But down below, Sans Sheriff had taken advantage of the few seconds of distraction and had now backed away slightly from the basement door and typed on her tablet and threw ‘ ** _unlock_** ’ at the door, then reached over to open the door… 

And jerked back when the door was yanked out of her loose grip and slammed shut again by someone inside… and Ladybug wasn’t certain if she could just hear the faintest click of the lock being thrown again from her place up on the roof or if she just imagined it. At the school’s main entrance, Chat Noir raced into view and leapt across the courtyard, landing in front of Sans Sheriff and swung his baton like a baseball bat, catching her across the stomach and sending Sans Sheriff tumbling out into the center of the courtyard. 

Ladybug could CERTAINLY hear Nino’s voice from the other side of the basement door however, his voice almost cracking in panic as he shouted. “NO, don’t you freaking dare, Adrien!!” There were the sounds of a faint scramble, then Nino’s voice came again, getting fainter fast… “I don’t care that you locked the door! She just unlocked it you idiot! You are coming with me right now, did you miss the fact that we THREW A TABLE at a supervillain? Let Chat Noir and Ladybug handle it!!” 

Sans Sheriff’s eyes darted from the door to- for some reason- Chat Noir, and then back again. Chat Noir for his part looked over his shoulder at the shouting, face creasing in confusion. He took a step towards the door, and for one moment… seemed to forget about Sans Sheriff, who took advantage of his distraction to type and throw ‘ ** _unlock_** ’ at the door yet again, then tried to rush past him. 

Chat cursed and lunged forward into close combat, trying to keep Sans Sheriff in the courtyard and away from the basement door. 

Snapping her yoyo down in a quick, rapid-fire, series of strikes against Sans Sheriff, Ladybug forced her away from the basement door, keeping the super-villain off balance, and trying to get a good angle to lasso her tablet. 

This SHOULD be relatively easy. Sans Sheriff had displayed no ability to fly or move above average speeds. All they had to do was keep her here, in the open courtyard, and Chat could keep her busy long enough for her to lasso the tabl- 

Chat suddenly sneezed, stumbling back from the force of it. One sneeze was followed by another, then another, keeping him off balance as he backed up right into the basement door, still sneezing. Sans Sheriff was eying him with a CONSIDERING expression that worried Ladybug to no end. 

Right. They had to finish this. Now. And the usual strategy of Chat handling melee combat while Ladybug kept her distance obviously wasn’t going to work at the moment. Ladybug backed up and tossed her yoyo straight up. “Lucky Charm!!” 

The Champion spun around and typed one single, short, word onto her tablet and then ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ rushed at Ladybug, where she stood amidst the blazing light, trapped waiting for the Charm to fa- 

Chat Noir extended his baton and raced upwards, faster than the word of command and slammed into Ladybug, sending her flying back and out of the way ( _and nearly sending her off the school’s roof_ ). 

…but that left him in the path of Sans Sheriff’s attack. 

“CHAT!” Ladybug screamed, but it was already too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …Yeeeeaaaaah, remember in Chapter 10 when I mentioned how I had to do a lot of last minute Math for the dimensions of the classroom?
> 
> This was the other reason for it. I needed to work out how many meters per second Sans’ attacks were going- or rather, I needed ADRIEN ( _the canonical physics nut_ ) to have the information so that HE would know how fast the attacks moved. 
> 
> Because I know that Adrien can move FAST via extending his baton… he’s done it once or twice in the show- so I needed Sans’ attack to be fast enough to endanger Ladybug ( _who was stuck in the tail end of summoning her Charm_ ) but still slow enough that Chat, using his Baton, could get there AHEAD of the attack. And so… lots of last minute math done in chapter 10
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Because Adrien is enough of a goof to find out how to say ‘Black Cat’ in as many languages as possible: The Black Cat( _English_ ) …mau km ( _ancient egyptian_ ) … hei mao ( _mandarin_ ) …cat dubh ( _gaelic_ ) …nigrum cattus ( _latin_ ) …gatto nero ( _italian_ ) …chernaya koshka ( _Russian_ ) 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> And I realized I was NOT super clear when I had this happen prior chapters and fics to this. When you see ‘The Black Cat’ in my works instead of ‘Chat Noir’, they’re saying it in ENGLISH, not French ( _rather like Ladybug is said in English in the show, even in the French dub_ ).


	15. Chapter 15

Chat Noir screamed as the pain hit him, visceral and primal, the sound cutting deep into Ladybug’s heart as Chat collapsed at the edge of the roof, his baton shrinking and falling, then rolling off the edge of the roof to fall down below as Chat curled up on himself, body quaking.

For a split second, Ladybug could only stare from where she’d landed, her eyes wide, the Lucky Charm, a heavy… blanket Ladybug guessed, although it was nearly as thick as her wrist, with straps sticking out from the corners, clasped tightly in her hand. That had… that had almost been her. She’d been stuck trying to finish summoning the Lucky Charm and catching it as it fell and if Sans Sheriff’s attack had hit HER she would- 

“NoNoNoNoNoNo, Chat… Chat you idiot, why did you do that, why don’t you ever get yourself out of the way too?!” Ladybug demanded as she scrambled back to her feet and to her partner. Her gaze darted down to Sans Sheriff, who was staring up at the fallen hero with a horrified expression. 

Good. She should be horrified! Chat had WARNED HER about what her commands could do, but Sans Sheriff had used something as stupidly dangerous as ‘ ** _Pain_** ’!! Ladybug hoped Papillon was horrified too! If he wasn’t she would find a way of making him UNDERSTAND what he’d had Sans Sheriff, or let her do, until he was as horrified as Ladybug was! 

Chat curled up tighter with a faint noise of pain that was barely human… and he jolted forward and down and Sans Sheriff’s eyes widened and she took a step closer, raising a hand as if to try and somehow stop his motion. Ladybug’s attention snapped back to her partner and she yelped as she realized that Chat was right on the edge of the roof, one leg over the edge, one shoulder brushing it… If he moved again, or even if he KEPT moving or stayed where he was he’d fall and- 

Ladybug shoved the Lucky Charm to the side and grabbed Chat around his chest, her face screwing up at the visceral sound he made. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry… just a second more, I promise,” she mumbled as she dragged him away from the edge then quickly let go, hands fluttering over him without touching him. Chat Noir was curled up in a tight ball, shaking faintly… his eyes open and clouded as he cried with pain, not reacting to anything… and purring faintly. 

“Chat? …Chat, it’s okay, it’ll be okay, honest.” Ladybug cautiously brushed some of Chat’s hair away from his face, relieved when doing so didn’t seem to cause him more pain. “I know it hurts but Sans Sheriff’s attacks only last a few minutes at most, it’ll be over soon.” 

Down below, Sans Sheriff jerked her head to the side, stumbling slightly as the Mark of Papillon suddenly flared to life before her face again. She cast one last look back up at the roof, then turned and headed into the basement. Ladybug started to get to her feet, then froze. She had to stop Sans Sheriff, but- 

_BANG_! 

The roof entrance trapdoor slammed open and Alya scrambled up and out onto the roof, her bookbag slung over one shoulder, Chat’s baton in her hand. She spun around, feet scrabbling on the smooth tiles, then spotted Ladybug and Chat Noir and took off towards them at a dead sprint, skidding to a stop at the last moment and almost slamming headlong into Ladybug, who reached up with one hand to steady her friend. “Alya?” 

Alya dropped to her knees, and reached over to check Chat, pulling back at the cry of pain just touching his shoulder elicited. “God…” she bit her lip and her brow furrowed in confusion for a second. “Chat? Why are you purring? …Why am I asking you, you can’t hear me right now…” 

“A cat’s purr makes it feel better when it’s hurt,” Ladybug offered quietly, reaching out with her hand to brush Chat’s hair again, even as she looked towards the open basement door. 

“…So it’s a last ditch effort to try to stop the pain?” Alya shook her head, visibly pulling herself together. She glanced up at Ladybug. “I’ll stay with him. You go stop Sans Sheriff before she finds anyone who’s still in the basement.” 

_BeepBeepBeepBeepBlip_

Alya glanced over at the Lucky Charm still sitting by the roof’s edge, and then her eyes darted to Ladybug’s earrings, which now had only four spots. Alya frowned and slung her bookbag off her shoulder and let it drop to the roof as she dug into it, pulling out a ziptop baggie with a croissant, a Kouign amann, and a few macarons inside and offered it to the wide-eyed Ladybug. “Here!” 

“What… How did you…” 

“Plagg said that Tikki’s Offerings were baked goods and cookies and stuff, but I didn’t know if she liked anything in particular, like how Plagg likes Camembert, so I just got a few different things. I bought them especially for Tikki so they’ll count as Offerings!” She dug into her bookbag and held up a second baggie with two wheels of camembert. “I thought… since I’m at a lot of the fights and you guys sometimes have to use your powers early that…” Alya trailed to a stop as Ladybug stared, jaw hanging. “…I wanted to be able to help.” 

That… Ladybug managed a weak smile. It… was kinda nice, knowing that there was someone who could and would HELP now. 

“Okay.” Ladybug took the baggy of baked goods and cookies and glanced down at Chat, who was still lost to the pain. “…It- When this wears off, let him know to head into the basement, okay? I’m sure he’ll be able to find me, and I’ll need his help to stop Sans Sheriff.” 

Alya nodded, and watched as Ladybug grabbed the Lucky Charm ( _which… okay that was a THICK blanket_ ) and leapt off the roof and dashed to the open basement door, the bag of goodies held in her left hand, her yoyo out and ready for use in her right, and the Lucky Charm tucked under her left arm. 

Alya glanced down at Chat Noir and cautiously brushed her knuckles over his cheek to wipe away the tears, wincing when even that seemed to hurt him. “Sorry. …Shhhh, shhh… it’ll fade soon. It has to… Just hold on, okay? Outlast it. You can do it. You saved Ladybug from it, and you can manage this, I know you can.” Alya glanced up and around, making certain that no one had followed her up onto the roof. 

No one in sight. 

Alya leaned in a bit closer and brushed her fingers through Chat’s hair cautiously. “It’ll be alright. Ladybug’ll keep Nino safe… and Chloé too. You did such a great job stalling in the classroom and you are gonna tell me how you managed to Obi-Wan Kenobi it like that. Because that? That was MASTERFUL.” Alya’s face twisted when Chat Noir offered another faint whimper, his eyes still clouded and unseeing. She was fairly certain that she NEVER wanted to find out how bad this pain was. “It’ll fade soon. You can do it. Just another minute or less. You kept Ladybug safe, you just need to hold on, just for another minute, I promise,” she whispered, running her fingers though Chat’s hair, hoping she wasn’t lying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chocolate chip cookies are a very, VERY American or British cookie. Where-as Macarons are a much more traditionally FRENCH cookie. Croissants and Kouign amann are fairly common baked goods/breads.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised; HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TORAYA!! ^_^

_BeepBeepBeepBlip_

Ladybug raced down the hallway after Sans Sheriff, closing the gap as fast as she could. Sans Sheriff started to turn down one of the hallways, and Ladybug leapt forward to hit the Champion in a tackle, bulldozing into the Akumatized teacher like an American Football player and sending both into the boiler room. “Oh no you don’t, you don’t get away from me that easily!” 

Ladybug leapt away from Sans Sheriff and shoved the baggie of baked goods into the corner and dropped the Lucky Charm on top of it. She smiled grimly at Sans Sheriff and began a series of rapid fire strike with her yoyo, keeping Sans Sheriff off balance, forcing the Champion to keep to the middle of the boiler room, Sans Sheriff’s attention focused on keeping hold of her tablet rather than typing out the next word or sentence of command or attack. She took a certain perverse pleasure, probably more than she should have, from the way Sans Sheriff winced at the stinging strikes. 

Good. It was probably only a mild pain, like hitting a funny bone, but Sans Sheriff DESERVED it… Honestly, at this moment more than ever, Ladybug wished Papillon was here too, she’d do more than smack him ‘lightly’ with her yoyo, because he deserved it much more than anyone else. 

“I. Can’t. Believe. You. Thought. Something. Like. PAIN. Was. An. Acceptable. Thing. To. DO!” Ladybug snapped, punctuating each word with a strike to Sans Sheriff, focusing on the Champion’s fingers, shoulders and mask. 

“Are you speaking t-OW!” 

“Both of you! You don’t get to weasel out of it either! The Mark wasn’t there when you did that! You made that decision on your OWN!” she lassoed one of Sans Sheriff’s wings as the Mark of Papillon flared to life and yanked the Champion off her feet, spinning her around and sending her flying into the opposite wall. “You’re still ultimately to blame, Papillon! Don’t you think I don’t know that!” 

Ladybug ducked into a slide as Sans Sheriff leapt at her in a tackle. “And also! What is up with… with you!?” 

“With… me- what?” 

“You aren’t… you’re you! Or mostly you! You’re all weird and NORMAL and you weren’t even angry when you changed-” oh shoot, that probably hadn’t been on the livestream… “Alya said when I got here! And you didn’t DO anything! …well, you did, but Papillon would prompt you and you’d do something, then you just… stalled out until he prompted you again! What was UP with that!?” 

The Mark of Papillon flared to life, and Sans Sheriff… offered a shrug. “I do not know what either of you are referring to.” 

…Okay so, that meant… what? Papillon wanted to know what was up as well? …That pushed this from ‘weird’ to ‘beyond weird’. 

The Mark flared again and Sans Sheriff sighed deeply. “While I fully intend to find and confirm your hypothesis, the fact remains, Papillon, that I do not have a way in which to leave as of… wait.” She broke off, frowned and looked around the boiler room. “…I have near invulnerability… what are the limits there-of?” 

…Oh THAT was such a worrying question for Sans Sheriff to ask!! Ladybug leapt back into action, pressing the attack and trying to get the tablet away from Sans Sheriff NOW. She did NOT want to find out what the bad guys’ plan was!! 

Sans Sheriff dropped and curled up tightly around her tablet, taking the blows from Ladybug’s yoyo as she started to grimly type on her tablet. 

_BeepBeepBlip_

Shoot shoot shoot SHOOT!!! 

Ladybug raced forward and hit Sans Sheriff’s back in a tackle, scrabbling at the Champion’s arms as she tried to get to the tablet before Sans Sheriff could do… whatever it was she had planned. 

Sans Sheriff managed to twist her arms free from Ladybug, and a second later ‘ ** _All pipes burst_** ’ raced through the air to hit the output pipes for the boiler. 

Ladybug yelped and dove out of the way of the spray of scalding hot water, frantically avoiding the spray because, frankly, she wasn’t certain what temperatures SHE could hold up to… Chat Noir hadn’t been protected from the extreme cold of the walk in freezer after all… It followed that extreme heat would be an issue as well. She made a quick mental note to ask Tikki about extreme temperatures and stuff like that later… then leapt. Stuck away from the door, Ladybug went into a tumbling roll and came up in a ready crouch in the corner where she’d dropped the Lucky Charm to try and grab it and get out when the OTHER pipes crazed with cracks, spraying water in every direction. Out in the hall, Ladybug could hear the sounds of more pipes breaking and water spraying out. 

Sans Sheriff stepped out of the scalding water and looked down at herself, as if surprised that she was unharmed. Both Ladybug and Sans Sheriff turned and stared down the hall, and past the hall… Ladybug could hear more and more cracking of pipes and water spraying, the sound continuing on and fading as it apparently spread throughout the entire basement, if not beyond. 

She couldn’t help the glare she sent Sans Sheriff’s way. “You just had to use ‘ALL’ didn’t you?” 

“…I might have misworded that command.” 

“‘I might have-’ …You know what, I take it back. You ARE operating under dream logic. It’s just really subtle and really, really STUPID dream logic!!” 

Sans Sheriff began to stalk towards the corner Ladybug had tucked herself into, raising her tablet and beginning to type. Ladybug looked down at the heavy blanket that was the Lucky Charm and let her mind slip into that particular… FOCUS… that made the color drain from the world and showed her what she needed to use to make full use of the Charm. 

The Blanket. 

A Water Pipe. 

Her Yoyo. 

Ladybug frowned. There was something… It wasn’t complete, she could feel it. There was something missing and she couldn’t figure out WHAT. 

The boiler began to creak and screech, and Sans Sheriff stopped typing and turned to stare at the ancient beast of a machine, her eyes going wide in realization. 

Ladybug stared at the boiler too… but for her, it was because that provided another piece of the puzzle. It was still incomplete, she could feel the nagging at the back of her head. Which meant this probably wasn’t going to STOP Sans Sheriff or win the day. 

Ladybug offered Sans Sheriff a grim smirk when the Champion turned back from the boiler to face Ladybug. 

It wouldn’t win the day, but the plan she’d just come up with would certainly put a damper on Sans Sheriff’s day in all the ways Ladybug WANTED to, especially right now. 

Sans Sheriff’s eyes narrowed and she looked from Ladybug back to the boiler, trying to see what Ladybug had- 

She was just in time to see the yoyo lasso the waterpipe, ripping it off it’s moorings so that water gushed from it’s mouth like a firehose. 

She spun back to Ladybug. “No! DON’T!!” 

Ladybug just gave Sans Sheriff another grim smirk and pulled on the yoyo, hauling the pipe so that the water sprayed directly onto the boiler’s fuel box, then yanked up the heavy Lucky Charm blanket and tucked herself under it as best she could, grabbing the straps to hold it down as tightly as possible as the boiler exploded. 

_BeepBlip_

# BOOM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it might not be **_100%_** clear… but I have a slightly different beep pattern for LB and Chat… due mostly to the fact that when I watch the show it always seems like Chat has more beeps that are faster, while LB has fewer beeps that are slower… Now granted that could be due to me being Hard of Hearing IRL and mishearing the beeps/pattern.
> 
> I have it where the pattern/number of beeps is one of the ways the Miraculous Wielders can tell how many minutes they have left, the number of beeps decreasing until the last spot vanishes/they detransform... the last one goes back to the higher number of beeps essentially as a final warning.
> 
> That said… here be the beeps/pattern for LB and Chat. ^^
> 
> _LADYBUG_ |    |  _CHAT NOIR_  
> ---|---|---  
> _BeepBeepBeepBeepBlip_ |  4 spots left/ 4 minutes left |  _BlipBlipBlipBlipBlipBlipBlipBeep_  
> _BeepBeepBeepBlip_ |  3 spots left/ 3 minutes left |  _BlipBlipBlipBlipBlipBeep_  
> _BeepBeepBlip_ |  2 spots left/ 2 minutes left |  _BlipBlipBlipBeep_  
> _BeepBlip_ |  1 spot left/ 1 minute left |  _BlipBeep_  
> _BeepBeepBeepBeepBlip_ |  detransform/ 0 minutes left |  _BlipBlipBlipBlipBlipBlipBlipBeep_


	17. Chapter 17

Chloé ran through the maze of the basement, feeling panic steadily build deep in her chest.

She had to have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Everyone in the school knew that the basement of the school linked up with at least SOME of the basements of the local buildings, and those basements linked to others, and those linked to others, spreading out across much of the city. It had only been a school rumor for decades… and then three years ago Jean Goldman had gone into the basement to share lunch with his Uncle, the school’s janitor. 

He had ended up several blocks away from the school, coming out in the basement tombs of a church ( _and apparently scaring the Nun who’d been cleaning out of her skin when Jean had accidentally snuck up behind her_ ). 

Which meant that the possibility of taking a wrong turn and ending up somewhere else in the city was a very real possibility. 

It also had sparked a new generation of rumors… rumors that some of the turns and twists wouldn’t lead you to another basement... but instead would take you to the terrifying labyrinth of subterranean mines and galleries of the grand réseau sud of the infamous catacombs. And once lost in the catacombs… 

Chloé sped up. 

The walls were still painted and unpainted cinderblock. The pipes were still silvery metal and plastic with crisp painted markings and warnings. She was probably either still in the school’s basement or very close to it… and it was possible she was running in circles because- 

Chloé trailed to a stop and frowned at an intersection. 

An intersection where someone had painted a very crude drawing of what Chloé GUESSED was a goat. 

…She’d been here before. 

She WAS going in circles. 

…Well, it was still better than ending up over half a kilometer away in a church basement like Jean Goldman had. 

Chloé pulled her phone out, and groaned when she realized that she STILL had no signal. How was that even possible? She had the best cell phone, and the best cell service, money could buy. HOW was there no signal with just a few feet of earth above her head? 

There was a distant sound, like water spraying from a hundred hoses, somewhere down the crude-goat hall. 

Chloé looked up and frowned, trying to figure out what the sound was. 

Now that she thought about it, she could also just hear voices up ahead… both female, one higher in pitch than the other, both familiar in a nagging sort of way. …The deeper voice was rarer, and sounded calm, while the higher pitched and more familiar one was shouting and angry-the words unclear but the intent anything but. 

The water spraying from hoses sound was getting louder too now. What WAS that? 

…Chloé’s eyes drifted to the water pipes mounted on the walls and ceiling of the hallways. 

“Oh, Fu-” 

The pipes crazed with cracks, and water burst out of the cracks, and within seconds Chloé was SOAKED, clothing plastered to her body, her make-up alternately running or pressure washed clean off, and worst of all… 

“My HAIR!” she wailed. Her true vainglory, the one thing that even her foes admitted was lovely… in an instant was nothing more than a soaking, snarled, matted mess from the high pressure wash. 

There was absolutely no way that this day could get any wo- 

Down the crude-goat hall… something exploded, making the world shake and throwing Chloé into one wall, and then off her feet in one of the hallways of the junction- which ended up being what saved her, mostly, from the massive wave of flame and debris that roared down from the goat-hall. 

Chloé screamed as the explosion washed over her legs, yanking them up to her chest and rolling further into the relative safety of the side-hall she was in, in this one second grateful for the water pouring out of the pipes as the flames that caught on her clothing were snuffed out almost before she registered the fact that HER LEGS WERE ON FIRE. 

Crying, ears ringing, Chloé pulled herself up against the wall and pressed a hand against one leg, then the other. 

It hurt. 

She looked down at the phone in her hand, crying, wanting to be able to call her dad and have him come and make everything better. 

…but her phone was soaking wet, and she couldn’t get it to turn back on. 

Chloé edged over to the hallway junction again and glanced down it, trying to see through the water, steam and- now- smoke and flames. 

She could just make out a shape. Tall, slim… with wings. …There was a purple glow around about where the person’s face should be, and that was all Chloé needed to see. 

Stuffing her phone into her pocket, she pushed herself back up nto her feet, biting her tongue to keep from screaming. 

The Miraculous Restoration would fix her legs and her phone and everything else. …but she had to get AWAY from Sans Sheriff, and she had to do it NOW. Moving as fast as she could, limping as her right leg sent stabs of sharp pain shooting up her body, and her left sent duller stabs, Chloé went off again, away from whatever room had just exploded, trying to find her way out of the basement- or at the very least out of the spray of water from the busted pipes. 

Two hallways later, she had to turn and back track because the water coming out of the pipes up ahead had steam filling the space around them, and- well, yeah, steam was probably BAD… if nothing else she’d seen enough horror films to know that the monster ALWAYS came out of the steam! 

A minute and several dozen turning later and her legs weren’t hurting as much, and Chloé found a semi-dry spot… water behind, but steam ahead… and at some point the walls had changed from cinderblock to brick. 

…there was a shape moving through the scalding water and steam ahead. 

Chloé ducked back against the wall into an alcove between two pipes, water spraying less than an inch in front of her face as she ducked down as best she could with her legs hurting as they were, slapping a hand over her mouth to muffle the cry of pain she couldn’t help but voice. 

Sans Sheriff stormed out of the steam, soaking wet and covered in scorch and burn marks, her feathers and gown burned and blackened and she did NOT, in Chloé’s rather professional opinion of pissed of Champions, look happy at ALL. The Mark of Papillon glowed in front of her face as she stalked past the hiding Chloé, Sans Sheriff growling and grumbling about Ladybug and boilers and fuelboxes. 

Chloé watched her go past and looked in the direction Sans Sheriff had come from, where scalding hot water and steam still filled the hall… then at the hall which, while filled with pipes spraying water… was at least spraying cold water. 

Chloé gulped and crept out of the alcove and backtracked, left hand pressed up against the brickwork, icy cold water spraying her from all directions, ducking down as low as she could, searching for the shape of a gowned, winged, supervillain ahead of her. 

Her hand met empty space and Chloé stumbled and almost fell before she caught herself… a void yawned to her left, a hallway she’d missed and gone past before in her haste. Edging through it, Chloé could see the hallway stretching away, a door at the end… and light and stairs beyond the partially open door. 

Light and stairs meant a way out! 

Chloé took one step, then looked back over her shoulder. 

Somewhere back there, in all that mess, was Adrien. And apparently Ladybug. 

Chloé looked back and forth between the hallway and the beckoning door a few times. 

What would be the point of her going back? She can’t do anything. She should get HERSELF to safety because honestly that’s the important thing… right? 

She could just hear Sans Sheriff somewhere down the hall, shouting for Ladybug and Chat Noir to show themselves… and she could hear Sans Sheriff demanding that Adrien show himself. 

_‘I protect my friends.’_

Maybe Ladybug would be happy about Chloé helping this time? Maybe Chloé could even save the day! That would be worth it! …And totally and completely the only reasons she’s debating is just to have Ladybug be impressed with her and maybe be on television and be able to brag about how SHE totally saved Ladybug and the day and… 

A wave of glowing Ladybug’s raced down the hallway, curling around Chloé before rushing away, leaving Chloé dry, healed- 

-and staring down Sans Sheriff across the hallway… the Champion apparently having only been a few meters away, hidden in the spray of water. 

Chloé screamed and spun on her heel, and took off running down the hall as fast as she could. She dove through the door and spun to slam it closed… 

And threw herself to the floor as ‘ ** _Cease movement_** ’ rushed overhead, almost hitting her as Sans Sheriff advanced down the hall towards Chloé. 

Scrambling back up to her feet, Chloé slammed the door shut and locked it and raced up the stairs as fast as she could, towards the surface, escape and survival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Marinette might be innocent ducklings who don’t curse, but you’ll never convince me that Chloé doesn’t curse at least a LITTLE.


	18. Chapter 18

Nino was running blind through the basement, and in all honesty was starting to get more than a little panicked. The Miraculous Restoration had swept by a minute or two ago, drying him off and repairing the pipes and related damage. Finding a door with an old fashioned drop down bar to lock it instead of a normal twist latch, Nino couldn’t help but pause and stare. What was THIS doing in a school’s basement? ( _if this was still the school’s basement_ ) raising the metal bar up and out of the way to ‘unlock’ the door, he braced with his feet and slowly managed to drag the metal door open despite its stiff hinges and groaned as he found himself facing ANOTHER long hallway.

He thought he’d heard Chloé scream back when the Restoration had swept by, and… well, Adrien obviously still cared about the blonde, given what he’d said to Sans Sheriff, and the whole dragging Chloé as well as Nino while running to safety in the basement thing… so now Nino found himself doing something he honestly had never even considered as a future life option. 

Running through the basement of the school, towards a scream he isn’t 100% certain he even heard, possibly running TOWARDS a supervillain that he’d thrown a table at, trying to find and rescue CHLOÉ of all people. 

This was not how he’d thought this day would go, he was not gonna lie. 

Also… Nino slowed to a stop and looked around with a frown. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t really certain if he was in the SCHOOL’S basement at the minute. For one thing the walls were brick instead of cinderblock now, he was fairly certain that the school couldn’t possibly be THIS big. … There’d always been rumors of the basements in the area being connected to a greater or lesser extent, and there were always tales of kids who got lost and were never found, or who ended up in different parts of the city… and the school DID sit over the edge of one of the largest sections of the Catacombs… 

… 

Nino looked around slowly. He… couldn’t be IN the catacombs, right? They would totally look different then this, wouldn't they? If nothing else there was no way there would be pipes in the catacombs, right? RIGHT! 

… 

Nino looked back over his shoulder, then ahead- and spun on his heel and took off the way he’d come, because… ohgodohgodohgod he had totally ended up in the catacombs and he was gonna get lost and never get out and DIE and- 

Something grabbed him as he went back through the stiff-hinged door, an arm snaking around his chest, a hand clamping over his mouth. 

Nino lashed out with his elbow and his attacker went down with a muffled yelp of pain… but unfortunately for Nino, the attacker kept his grip, dragging Nino down with him. 

Which is how Nino ended up landing shoulder first on top of Adrien, driving all the air out of the blond’s lungs and probably leaving a bruise or ten in his wake as Adrien wheezed and tried to catch his breath. 

“Aw, bro! I’m sorr-” 

Adrien’s hand clamped over Nino’s mouth as Adrien scrabbled at Nino, trying to get them both back to their feet and hidden against the wall, but before he could manage it Sans Sheriff stalked around a corner and pulled up short, staring at the two boys, framed by the open door. 

Nino winced as Adrien’s hands clenched painfully tight on Nino’s shoulders, fingers digging deep as Adrien froze, staring at Sans Sheriff with a blank expression. Nino tried to twist himself off Adrien and back to his feet, trying to get Adrien up and moving because the bad guy was here, it was long past time to run and this was no time for Adrien to apparently shut down in a panic! 

Sans Sheriff started to stalk towards the two of them when a cat eared shadow suddenly raced across the wall to her right drawing her attention and eye even as something darted behind her… sensed as motion rather than shape- 

And the heavy metal door slammed shut in her face, its rusty bulk giving the two boys ( _and apparently their cat-eared savior_ ) a moment of protection from her. 

Nino took the moment for all it was worth. “Come on!” he snapped, hauling Adrien to his feet and taking off running, keeping a tight grip on Adrien’s wrist. 

Adrien snapped back to himself the moment Nino grabbed his wrist and offered a “RUN!” in his usual ‘Chat Noir’ inflection to his voice. Nino was giving Adrien a weird look, but at the moment, Adrien didn’t care. He and Plagg ( _well, alright, mostly Plagg_ ) had come up with a plan. Let Sans Sheriff see Adrien running around with Nino while Plagg flew around to create a catlike like shadows and a presence/movement for Sans Sheriff ( _and hopefully by extension Papillon_ ) to think was Chat Noir. Adrien freezing in a panic hadn’t been part of the plan, but… the memory of the pain was still raw and fresh, and Adrien had just… blanked. 

Nino made a sharp left down a hallway, then another right. “C’mon, there was like a maze of pipes and machines and junk this way… Didn’t do me any good when I was trying to find you and Chloé, but NOW-” 

Adrien blinked. “Now it’s just what we nee-” 

There was a screeching roar of metal behind them, followed by what sounded like a large load of sand hitting the ground. Adrien picked up the speed, his jaw clenching as he looked back. It was a sound he was overall used to from using his cataclysm… Sans Sheriff had just made the door rust to nothing but dust instead of simply ‘unlocking’ it. If she hadn’t been angry before, she certainly was NOW. A small part of him wondered if whatever the explosion had been was why. 

Adrien and Nino ran into a large room filled with pipes of all shapes and sizes, machinery… there were catwalks up above, and through the rusted metal grating of the floor, Adrien could see that there was at least one more level below. It was an unholy, rusty mess- most of the lights had long since burned out, and the few that remained were dim memories or flickered like strobe lights. Adrien vaguely wondered what a basement like this was doing near the school… there were no factories or hotels or businesses that would need a complex monstrosity like this, and NONE of the buildings anywhere near-by were abandoned. 

Maybe it was a forgotten basement? He didn’t know much of the history of this section of Paris, maybe somewhere up above one of the buildings HAD been a factory and this basement had just been… forgotten? He had needed to go DOWN at least one level before he’d found Nino, so maybe they were under the basements that were actually, currently, in us- 

Nino cut to the side, towards Plagg’s waiting cat-eared shadow ( _it was weird how… human… Plagg’s shadow looked right now. Adrien wondered if it was the Glamour or something Plagg was doing_ ), dragging Adrien with him, which snapped Adrien back to himself. 

“Dude, come on! What is going on with you?!” 

“I.. sorry. I just-” Adrien broke off in a yelp and dragged Nino off to the left, down a path of pipes as he caught a glimpse of white behind them. …and nearly collapsed when ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ rushed past towards Plagg’s false ‘Chat’ shadow, brushing Adrien’s arm and hip, making the world go white for a second. 

That- Just getting brushed hurt a lot more then he’d thought it would. 

“Adrien?!” 

Nino’s voice, right in his ear. Arms wrapped around his chest and forcing him to keep moving, despite the pain in his hip and arm. Adrien ground his teeth together and shifted to take his own weight. It wasn’t as bad as getting hit full on by it. It would fade. He could deal. “Don’t… don’t let the… the commands touch you… Not… not at all.” 

“Crap.” 

“Should… should only last a minute, I think? That’s what it did before maybe.” He couldn’t really remember how long getting hit full-on by the last ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ command had lasted, outside of ‘an eternity’ in his head at least… and just thinking about it made his mind want to skip off track to focus on ANYTHING else, which he frankly had already done too many times in the last half minute. …He wondered if Sans Sheriff had known he and Nino were in the way of her attempted attack on ‘Chat Noir’. …He hoped not, as if she and Papillon no longer cared if Adrien and Nino were injured, that meant things would get VERY dicey, VERY fast. 

“Okay. We can work with that. Keep moving, okay?” 

Nino looked ahead and saw a glimpse of green cat eyes. He glanced down at Adrien, then shook his head and, keeping one hand on the now limping Adrien, headed into the deep shadows where the eyes waited. 

“We’re getting OUT of here, bro, I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien is having a very bad day… While he has been hurt, with fair regularity in canon actually, as Chat Noir, the level of pain he experienced just a few minutes/chapters ago is far, FAR worse than most anything he’s felt before… and as a result the kid is more than a little traumatized at the moment… and Adrien ( _so far as I can tell_ ) in the show tends to deal with high trauma by shutting down to analysis mode to a greater or lesser degree ( _where-as Mari deals with high trauma with much flailing and imagining of worst case scenarios to a greater or lesser degree_ ).  
> Sans Sheriff is definitely going on his top 5 list of ‘Worst. Akumatized. Champion. Ever.’
> 
> Also, Nino is the BEST ‘Best Bro’ to ever bro. Ever. Of all time.  
> Not only for helping Adrien out like he is at the moment, or even just his usual moments of awesome ( _standing up to Gabriel in Bubbler for one!_ )… but the guy was actively trying to find someone he DOES NOT LIKE ( _Chloé_ ) simply because *ADRIEN* is friends with her, and thus… Nino was trying to find and help Chloé.


	19. Chapter 19

Nino and Adrien moved through the maze of the apparently abandoned basement as fast as they could, both ducking as low, for the moment at least limited to Adrien’s limping pace. Nino kept to the lead, heading towards the occasional glimpse of green cat eyes he could spot in the dark, trusting Adrien to follow him and not go haring off ( _for the moment at least_ ).

The basement was a maze. More than Nino had expected it to be, but that ( _probably_ ) was working to their advantage for the most part. They both walked carefully, avoiding places where the metal grating of the floor had rusted, trying to avoid bumping into the pipes, machinery and the tables covered in old cans, mason jars and tools that cluttered the basement. Nino pulled up short, and barely managed to catch himself when Adrien smacked into him… 

Less than a meter in front them stood Sans Sheriff. Her back was to them, but she was already starting to turn around to see what the noise was. There were dead. There were dead, they were dead, they were- 

Something slammed into the pipes that formed a ‘wall’ beside Sans Sheriff, knocking them off their moorings in one huge mass to crash down onto Sans sheriff, who went down under their weight with a shriek as a black shadow darted away into the basement, snickering darkly. 

Nino backed up, pushing Adrien by sheer bodily force, until they were both back in the shadows. Turning he went back the way they’d come, checking over his shoulder to make certain Sans Sheriff hadn’t spotted them or gotten up yet AND that Adrien was keeping up. 

He didn’t like how Adrien looked at the moment, or how out of it he seemed… honestly how bad was the result of that ‘Pain’ command brushing him? Adrien was usually alert and noticed things even Nino missed. It was… freaky… having his best bro like this. Should Nino try to find someplace for them to sit and hide until it wore off? Should he keep to Adrien’s current pace? Or would it be better to try and push for more speed so they could get out to safety faster? 

Nino didn’t know what to do, and he hated that. What made it even worse was that he had NO IDEA how to protect Adrien right now, and every option seemed like a bad one. A flicker of motion ahead, and the green cat eyes were back. Setting his jaw, Nino headed towards them. Best plan was probably to keep to Adrien’s apparent best pace rather than trying to move faster, and keep following the cat-eyed guy ( _was it a guy? Nino didn’t know. Sometimes the shadow looked exactly like Chat Noir’s, sometimes it looked… well, like a chibi from those animes Adrien kept trying to get him to watch_ ) that was to all appearances trying to help them out. 

The situation was, without a doubt, terrifying and ranked high on Nino’s list of ‘worst Akuma attacks’. The only real plus that Nino could see was that Sans Sheriff was wearing white, and that made it fairly easy to keep track of her, even in the murk and flickering lights as she stalked through the maze, looking for Nino and Adrien… well, maybe more looking for Adrien. Nino wasn’t certain that his desperate ploy back at the door to the basement had done any good or if it had fooled anyone, least of all Sans Sheriff and Papillon. 

But… maybe. MAYBE he’d gotten lucky and the bad guys had been fooled into thinking Adrien was with Nino while Chat Noir battled Sans Sheriff in the courtyard. Nino pulled up short, ducking under a table as Sans Sheriff stalked by ahead of them. Adrien crept up beside Nino, eyes locked on the Champion as the blond shifted to sit for a second, stretching his right leg out with a soft hiss as he rubbed his shoulder. 

Nino leaned over and cupped a hand over Adrien’s ear, keeping his voice as low as he could. “So. What exactly is the plan, bro?” he whispered, keeping his eyes on Sans Sheriff. 

Good. It looked like she hadn’t heard them. 

Adrien blinked and looked away from Sans Sheriff to meet Nino’s eyes, then looked around the basement as if he were getting his bearings. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking back to Sans Sheriff and tracking her as she moved through the basement, Adrien smiling a grim little smile when a section of catwalk gave way above Sans Sheriff, dropping down onto her with a huge crash. “We follow Chat Noir. There’s a door to the next level up...somewhere. I mean there has to be... and that should be to the basement in use, which means we can get out,” he said as he shifted back to his feet, wincing sharply when he moved his right hip. 

“Follow Chat N-” Nino leaned back, staring at Adrien. There was… NO WAY Adrien was that oblivious. Right? He HAD to know that Nino- 

…Wait, this was Adrien. Nino loved his bro, but he knew how completely oblivious Adrien could be to things. Usually it was small things, admittedly. However, Adrien and the Point often missed each other by kilometers because Nino’s best friend was a well-meaning puppy with zero socialization who missed any/all cultural context clues. 

Which meant that Adrien probably WAS that oblivious. 

Nino groaned and dragged his hat down for a second and let his breath out slowly before moving back in close so he could keep whispering. “Alright. We can use that plan. But when we’re both outta here and safe and Sans Sheriff taken care of, you and I are having a talk, okay? …don’t give me that look, bro.” 

Adrien dropped his gaze to the floor, which spared Nino from more of the ‘mournful kitten’ eyes. Nino sighed and looked over to where Sans Sheriff was apparently trying to get back out from under the catwalk that had fallen on her. A glimpse of green to the right and Nino set off in the lead again. 

Follow ‘Chat Noir’, get out of the abandoned basement, hopefully from there get out of basements in general, maybe even back up to the street. Everything else could wait.


	20. Chapter 20

Sans Sheriff had closed in on them now. Adrien and Nino pressed back into a shadow under a table, Adrien pinching his nose closed and covering his mouth with his shirt to try and keep his allergies from being triggered… or at least stifle his reaction. Adrien closed his eyes for a second and so far as Nino could tell, held his breath, when Sans Sheriff stepped directly in front of the table the two hid under, the trailing length of her teal sash only a few centimeters away from Nino’s ankle. Nino shifted his weight, and slowly and carefully the noiret was able to get himself tucked further into the shadows under the table, pressed up tight against Adrien in order to fit.

Adrien opened his eyes slightly to look at Nino, then closed them again, keeping his breathing as shallow as possible, trying frantically not to sneeze. 

Nino put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze, watching the white dress and teal sash at first stayed right in front of the table they hid under. Then, finally, slowly ( _painfully slowly_ ) moved away. 

First one stride, then another… then finally at a slow stalk as Sans Sheriff headed deeper and deeper into the maze of pipes and machines. Nino squeezed Adrien’s shoulder, and Adrien opened his eyes and looked around, sorting out where Sans Sheriff had gone. 

Adrien pulled his shirt down and took a few cautious breathes, then let go of his nose and both he and Nino waited, tense, for a full minute before Adrien nodded and gave Nino a small smile. 

Nino smiled back and both he and Adrien looked around from under their cover. 

Adrien spotted Sans Sheriff and pointed her out silently to Nino, who nodded. 

Nino spotted the now familiar green eyes and after quick checking that Sans Sheriff was looking away from them, crept out from under the table and down a narrow ‘hall’ sandwiched between old pipes and a long row of machines, Adrien following in his wake. 

Nino froze and glanced back when Adrien grabbed his shoulder. The blond pointed to Nino’s left, where ( _upon looking_ ) Nino could see a stairwell up ahead with a door at the top… with a bright, warm, light seeping through the thin gaps between door and frame. 

Nino looked back to Adrien and mouthed ‘door’ while giving him a thumbs up. Adrien smiled and nodded and let go of Nino’s shoulder. Nino kept to the lead, glad that Adrien’s limp had mostly faded now and they were able to make better speed as they worked their way through the mess of the basement as quietly as they could. 

Both of the boys were almost crawling on their hands and knees now, forced to move in spurts from one small patch of cover to the next because of how close Sans Sheriff was… every time she shifted or started to look their way, Adrien and Nino had to try to get back to their last hiding spot… or dart forward to the one they had been trying to get to in the first place- 

Then froze, waiting, hearts in their mouth, to see if their hiding spot would work, or if this time she would see them and it would all be over. 

It went on like that for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes… then their green-eyed ally apparently managed to do SOMETHING that caught Sans Sheriff’s attention, because she moved off in a rush, passing in front of the two boys, and then gone-deep into the shadows and flickering lights of the basement. 

Adrien pushed himself up out of his crouch and carefully peaked over the machine they were hiding behind ( _who knew what it was for. Nino certainly didn’t. It had a ton of buttons of a trillion different sizes and colors on it, that was the extent of his knowledge_ ). He gave a small nod and ducked back down and smiled at Nino with a nod. 

The two headed off, leaning over until they were almost doubled over to stay below the long line of control consoles ( _or whatever they were_ ), moving at a near jog as they headed for the stairwell, the door, and the freedom beyond. 

They pulled up short, and Nino muttered a soft, yet heartfelt, FUCK- which made Adrien stare at him with wide eyes- as they found that several pipes had fallen, their bases rusted through. They had hit an old metal table, partially crushing it… but there was still some space below. Nino and Adrien ducked to their knees and examined the space, Adrien muttering softly as he did the math, eyes flicking from the ‘crawlspace’ to Nino’s shoulders, then back again. He finally nodded. “You go first, Nino. …Try not to jar the table though…” 

“Joy. Such confidence in me, bro.” 

Adrien scowled. “I have confidence in you. I just don’t have confidence in the TABLE.” 

Nino snickered at that, and carefully edged his way under the half-collapsed table. 

He got through, but as he was shifting to get to the side so Adrien could follow, his hip smacked into one of the pipes… knocking it from it’s delicate balance and sending it smashing to the ground in a terrifying clatter. Nino yelped and barely managed to get out of the way of the falling pipe… and had to scramble to the side to avoid the three pipes that followed it as the table collapsed. “Shit! Adrien!!” 

“Get further away from the pipes!” Adrien shouted as he… backed away from the shoulder high mess of still shifting and rolling pipes. Nino frowned in confusion. “Adrien what are yo-” Nino broke off as Adrien suddenly stopped backing up and took off towards the pile of pipes at a run. 

No. There was no way that- 

…No there totally was. 

“NoWaitAreyouCRAZ- ADRIEN!” Nino backed away from the pipes as fast as he could. 

Behind Adrien, he saw Sans Sheriff emerging from the gloom at a run, the mark of Papillon blazing to life before her face- the supervillain raised a hand, her face twisted in terror as she shouted at Adrien. “Adrien! DON’T!!” 

Adrien leapt up and forward. One foot hit a pipe near the top of the pile and Adrien used it as a springboard, launching himself forward in a flat dive as the pipes shifted then collapsed, several rolling back towards Sans Sheriff, but just as many cluttering the floor ahead of the leaping blond. 

Adrien landed, by some chance or skill, in a clear space between pipes… and he pushed off into another leap even as the space was filled by a rolling weight of steel, smashing into Nino, who grabbed Adrien instinctively and ran backwards as Adrien managed (somehow) to catch his balance and push into a run. 

“How did you DO that?!” Nino demanded. 

“Did you think the rockwall in my room was for SHOW!?” Adrien said, green eyes bright, smiling wildly. 

They ran down the hall… The door at the top of the door swung inwards, and light poured down the stairs and into the abandoned basement, ‘Chat Noir’s’ shadow stretching out across the rusted flooring and machinery. 

Nino led the charge up the stairwell, and the door slammed shut the second both he and Adrien were through. Nino laughed in relief when he saw how well-lit and maintained this new basement was… and ran straight for the clearly marked ‘exit’ sign. 

Nino yanked the door open, and growled when he found it was MORE stairs. He rolled his eyes and started up them anyway, looking over his should- 

Chat Noir grimly pushed Nino forward when Nino froze in shock, and went to close the door. “Run! Get OUT of here!” 

“Wha- NO! C’mon!!” Nino grabbed Chat Noir by the wrist and tried to drag him forward… 

But he couldn’t even make the black armored hero budge a millimeter. It was trying to move a morris column. 

Chat looked back sharply, his ears twitching, and then he shoved Nino forward. “BOTH of you get out of here!” he shouted loudly. “RUN!” and with that he slammed the door before Nino could say a word, then spun on his heel and ran back the way he and Nino had come. 

Up ahead, Sans Sheriff was in the process of stepping through the door that connected the modern basement with the abandoned. Her eyes went wide when she saw Chat Noir barreling at her, and Chat smirked as he leapt forward and hit her in a flying tackle. 

The two of them went crashing back down the stairs and into the rusted pipes Nino and Adrien had tried to sneak through mere seconds prior… and the far more durable forms of superhero and supervillain smashed through the pipes, crushing two of them from the impact before they went into a wild roll that ended with them slamming into another table, knocking the dozens of glass mason jars off of it, sending them to the floor, where several shattered upon impact, although most of them rolled away, catching up against pipes and machinery all around them as Chat Noir leapt away from Sans Sheriff. 

Chat pulled out his baton and split it in two, keeping both sections short, about the length of his forarm. Smirking, he pointed at Sans Sheriff with one baton as she slowly struggled to her feet. 

“Now that the mice are safely away, time for the cat to play!” 

Sans Sheriff scowled at him and started to type on her tablet, and Chat leapt forward to attack with a yowl.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday to my first beta (and simply awesome person!) Sharm!! ^_^

Ladybug was beginning to think that there might have been one or two… small… flaws in her plan.

Exploding the boiler had been an incomplete Lucky Charm plan, and looking back on it, Ladybug was fairly certain that the missing element had been something Chat would have brought to the party. Maybe he could have weakened part of the boiler or fuel box for a more precise explosion, or maybe he could have rusted beams from above to cage Sans Sheriff in place as he had done for Horrificator. 

It was probably the last one, honestly, given how the explosion had sent Sans Sheriff sailing out of the boiler room and far, FAR down the hall while Ladybug had hid under the thick blanket ( _which she was beginning to suspect had been a bomb blanket, given how well it had protected her_ ). 

After the initial explosion, Ladybug had risked the flames and scalding water to get out of the boiler room and had managed to find a relatively safe room to dive into JUST as the last minute of her timer had worn off, leaving Marinette to close the door and drag the Lucky Charm to an out of the way corner so she could sit on it instead of the dubious looking floor. She was more grateful then before now, that Alya had given her the baggies of baked goods. Especially given the fact that she… might have… eaten all the cookies… again. ( _They had CHOCOLATE, and last week had been her time of month and… well… then she’d forgotten to get a new baggie of cookies to keep in her blazer pocket_ ). Tikki had eaten everything in the baggie from Alya as quickly as possible, and suggested that it would probably be best to let Alya think that macarons were Tikki’s favorite offering, as chocolate chip cookies were not all… that… common and Alya might make the connection between the Offering and the fact that Marinette always had chocolate chip cookies, and often at least tried to have a baggie of them. 

While it had taken a minute or three, once Tikki had finished the last macaroon, Marinette had transformed and used the Lucky Charm to summon the Miraculous Restoration… and she was really and 100% certain that she had heard someone female SCREAM immediately after doing so. Which… was kind of a first, usually the screams came before the Restoration, not after. 

Ladybug had taken off deeper into the basement, trying to find the source of the scream, Sans Sheriff, Adrien and Nino… and maybe Chloé. Maybe. …If she ran into her. 

A minute or two of heading deeper and deeper into the basement, and Ladybug pulled up short as she heard a massive metal crash somewhere behind her and to her right. Setting her jaw, she began to backtrack, listening as hard as she could, following the rare crashes of metal on metal. 

Ladybug pulled up short when she found a pile of rust in a doorway. She ducked and ran her gloved fingertips through it. 

Loose and flowed easily. This was fresh, not a case of some metal door actually rusting away over years and years. Which meant- 

“Chat?” 

Why would Chat have wasted his cataclysm on a door? If it wasn’t repaired, that meant he’d done this AFTER she’d summoned the Restoration. How long ago had he used it? Had he needed to detransform yet? Was he protecting Adri- 

No. Wait. Ladybug took a long, slow breath. She’d jumped to conclusions like this before, with Pire Noël, and hadn’t THAT come back to bite her in the aft? While this LOOKED like Chat Noir’s use of his Cataclysm, it was possible it was something Sans Sheriff could have done with one of her commands. Even if it was done by Chat, it wouldn’t have been ‘wasted’, he had to have had a good reason for it, and he’d told her that he usually had cheese for his Kwami with him as a civilian, so even if Chat HAD needed to detransform, he probably was already back. 

There was a screeching roar of metal, followed by several clangs and bongs and rolling sounds somewhere up ahead. Ladybug got to her feet and took off down the hall. 

“Shit! Adrien!!” Nino’s voice echoed down the hall and Ladybug cut to the left towards it, racing down and down the long, dark, hallway. The apparently NEVERENDING hallway of doom, where WERE- 

“Get further away from the pipes!” 

Ladbybug skidded to a stop when she heard Adrien’s voice. 

Very faintly. 

BEHIND her. 

Spinning on her heel, Ladybug ran full tilt back down the dim hallway. 

“NoWaitAreyouCRAZ- ADRIEN!” Nino’s voice shouted as Ladybug skidded to a stop at an intersection of three hallways, bouncing in place as she tried to figure out which way to go… 

“Adrien! DON’T!!” she heard Sans Sheriff shout, and Ladybug was off like a shot again… only to pull up short yet again as she ran into the room at the end of the hallway, confused by the mess of pipes and machinery she could only just make out admist the dim and flickering lights. 

This room was- Ladybug dragged on her pigtails and tried to figure out where Adrien and Nino were in this mess ( _she could hear them saying something about rocks SOMEWHERE towards the far side of the massive basement_ ) and where Sans Sheriff wa- 

The basement was flooded with light as a door opened, Chat Noir’s shadow- 

-no not his shadow, it looked nothing like- 

-but… no it did, even his wild hair and shifting tail… 

…but at the same time it looked completely wrong, and the dichotomy was making her BRAIN hurt. Ladybug looked up and spotted a section of catwalk that LOOKED secure enough and threw her yoyo. A tug later and she was up on the creaking metal, just in time to see two people run up the stairs and through the door, which was slammed shut behind them. Ladybug looked around and could just see Sans Sheriff’s white shape moving at a fast run down one of the paths between pipe and machine. Shifting her stance, Ladybug began to spin her yoyo, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. 

Sans Sheriff opened the door that Adrien and Nino had fled through and took one step in, and Ladybug wound up and threw her yoyo- 

-and ended up missing by a mile as Chat Noir hit Sans Sheriff in a flying tackle, sending the Akumatized woman flying down the path so that both smashed into a pile of fallen pipes. 

So he HAD been keeping Adrien and Nino safe! Ladybug smiled and retracted her yoyo and looked around for a better place to anchor her yoyo so she could get down to the main level safely, even as down below Chat Noir attacked Sans Sheriff with his batons and a yowl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …Okay, to the person who apparently found my tumblr (not like I try hard to hide it) and sent me hate mail about how I needed to stop ‘queer baiting’ with Adrien and Nino and ‘just admit it and do what’s right’ and… well, a few other things that I shall not put here.
> 
> I stated this at the end of Chapter 4 of this fic. I do NOT ship Adrien and Nino (nor do I ship Alya and Marinette). Adrien and Nino’s interactions were written as FRIENDSHIP and brotherly/family love. 
> 
> Just because YOU ship two characters does not mean that every instance of them being nice to each other or caring about each other is ‘queer baiting’. Please. Take off the shipping goggles. You are free to ship who and how you please, but PLEASE remember that this is a FANFIC. 
> 
> This is not the canon universe, it is my own take on it… the ships I enjoy, the headcanons I enjoy, the decisions I will eventually make that break away from canon (it’s coming, for one thing I’m 99% certain my Peacock and Butterfly will NOT be canon, and I'm 100% certain the order of Miraculous Wielders becoming active will be different too) as I follow the ‘For Want of a Nail the Kingdom was Lost’ divergent path… All of those are canon HERE, in this fic series. 
> 
> But they are ONLY canon HERE.
> 
> …And honestly, death threats? Because you saw shipping and erotic love in a scene written to be friendship? …Please don’t, okay? Just. Don’t.


	22. Chapter 22

Chat swung his right hand baton in a vicious backhand, catching Sans Sheriff square in the mask and sending her crashing into one of the computer consoles, getting more than a little vindictive pleasure out of the action. Probably more than he should have at that, and in all honest… but darn it all, so far today he’d accrued quite the list of grievances against this particular Champion… and he was calling in her debts for being the cause of, but not limited to:

  * having a panic attack in front of maybe the whole class ( _he still wasn’t certain if it had been obvious that he’d been in the start of a panic attack in the classroom or not- …or more he still wasn’t certain if anyone else in the class knew what a panic attack looked like… or if his had been as obvious as it had felt to him_ )
  * definitely having a panic attack in front of Chloé and Nino, and saying something that he couldn’t take back and might not be able to make UP for to Chloé…
  * had at least two nasty allergy attacks, which he still absolutely and unceasingly hated with the passion of a thousand dying suns ( _because it couldn’t be a NORMAL allergy, or a COOL allergy, no it had to be an allergy to FEATHERS of all shapes, sizes and apparently of magical or mundane origins_ )…
  * He’d accidentally revealed that he actually really and seriously loved Ladybug instead of it being the harmless banter that he’d been letting her think it was ever since Dislocœur ( _he was hoping no one had heard THAT part, the idea that Ladybug might find out about it or worse had SEEN it on the livestream and how it might CHANGE things or worse, chase her away, was terrifying_ ), 
  * he’d been made catatonic from pain for a short eternity and he wasn’t even certain if that had been on Alya’s livestream or not, but knowing his luck it WAS and he’d have to stay away from the forum board and video comments the Ladyblog for the next MONTH to avoid seeing what people had to say about him and what they thought of him after THAT…
  * and then he’d spent the better part of ten minutes basically trapped in a horror movie and he HATED horror movies 



and it was ALL Sans Sheriff’s fault. Getting a LITTLE vengeance was okay!

He then leapt forward and landed a kick on her that drove her against the console and made the metal siding of the console cave in beneath her in a satisfying fury of sparks and sound. Chat leapt back and away the second he felt his nose and throat start to itch, and then leapt between some pipes, ducking so that he was out of sight as he ran silently through the deep shadows. He’d come around and hit her from behind… or maybe from the side… or heck, even from ABOVE. 

He snickered darkly as he managed to get around behind Sans Sheriff, and kept moving, making Sans Sheriff turn slowly as she tried to find him amidst the shadows. 

“So I’m wondering what I should do. More pipes? Should I drop another catwalk on you? Any particular preferences, Madame? Anything you’d prefer?” 

“Show yourself!” 

“Nope,” Chat Noir snickered. Because honestly, did she REALLY think that would work? “Didn’t before, why should I now?” Chat asked as he continued his circuit around Sans Sheriff. A flash of red made him pause and glance up. 

Ladybug. He couldn’t help the smile as he tore his eyes off her as she used her yoyo to descend from the catwalks above and returned his attention to Sans Sheriff. 

…Just in time to see Sans Sheriff type a familari word onto her tablet, and begin the now familiar swiping motion. 

“ **NO!** ” 

Chat leapt forward and hit Sans Sheriff, his foot catching on the console and sending both of them smashing to the floor, even as he shoved both of her arms, losing his grip on his batons as he did so. 

The ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ command went wild, flying off into the gloom and missing Ladybug, even as Chat’s batons went clattering off into the dark… one rolling to a stop somewhere under a console, the other falling off the edge of the walkway to fall down into the depths to the floor below. It didn’t matter, he could worry about getting them back later. All that mattered now was that Ladybug hadn’t been hit by Sans Sheriff’s ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ attack. 

Chat felt the itch start in his throat again and ignored it, trying to keep Sans Sheriff down and busy long enough for Ladybug to get all the way to the ground and out of the potential line of fire. The plan worked. …Right up until he sneezed, head snapping down as he accidentally head-butted Sans Sheriff in the mask, which made him see stars for a split second. Sans Sheriff was able to throw him off and Chat landed in a controlled tumble, coming up on his feet… only to yelp as the grating of the floor gave way under his feet. He fell through, scrabbling madly at the metal grating of the floor to catch himself half way though. Legs kicking wildly at empty air, he started to pull himself out of the new hole… and found himself stuck. 

…His belt was caught on the grating. 

He dug in with his claws and tried frantically to pull himself OUT of the grating, but he couldn’t get enough purchase, especially when one of the sections of grating he’d grabbed onto partially ripped out in his grip. 

A white dress in front of him, and Chat Noir looked up slowly from where he was trapped. 

Past the slim, flowing skirt, past the teal sash draped behind the back and over the arms, past the modest bodice to meet Sans Sheriff’s teal eyes, grim behind her white half-mask, her delicate white wings flaring, bold shapes against the dark space behind her. She slowly and deliberately raised her tablet up and, eyes locked with Chat Noir’s, typed in a single word. 

Chat’s eyes went wide and he paled, struggling wildly and uncoordinated as his thoughts spiraled into a blind panic. ‘ _NoNoNoNoNoNo-Not again, not again, NOT AGAIN, please not again I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, NOT AGAIN-!!_ ’ There was nothing to brace his feet against below, nothing sturdy enough to grab to pull himself free with his belt hooked on the jagged, rusty metal… 

Sans Sheriff didn’t glare, or smirk, or have even the slightest change in expression as she stared down at the panicking Chat Noir. Instead she finished typing the word, then swiped her fingers across the tablet, throwing ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ at the trapped superhero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So while re-watching the series, I noticed something odd.  
> After Dislocœur, Chat stops trying to flat-out/openly confess his love to Ladybug.  
> Oh he FLIRTS with her, but there's more a playfulness to it now, and Ladybug seems to relax around it as a result... to the point where she even encourages him or flirts back a small amount ( _Which just encourages Chat to keep at it_ ).  
> But post-Dislocœur, Chat Noir no longer attempts to flat out say 'I love you' to Ladybug.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> I think there's only one more chapter to the fight now... BUT just as a head's up the 'end card' is going to be longer than the one-chapter norm as there's actually a fair amount I want to cover/touch on before the next fic.
> 
> I'm sorry for how short the chapters have been, everyone. My leg is still giving me grief, one of our dogs broke his jaw, and that's on top of the usual holiday madness for a very, very BIG and very, very DIVERSE family. 
> 
> But I really REALLY don't want to do another hiatus, so I'm just trying to do my best! ^_^


	23. Chapter 23

Chat Noir curled up, closing his eyes and bracing for the pain the moment Sans Sheriff’s fingers swiped over her tablet, unable to help the sob that escaped him.

Ladybug hit Chat Noir shoulder first at what was very nearly her top speed, curled up into a ball as if she were doing a cannonball into a pool instead of saving her partner… and the combination of her speed and weight made the rusted flooring that had Chat Noir trapped give way and the two fell through the floor, Sans Sheriff’s command of ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ only just brushing Ladybug’s left knee and ankle before the duo were gone, down into the dark depths. 

Ladybug ground her teeth at the pain and forced herself to uncurl from her tight ball, grabbing Chat’s shoulders and twisting so that she was in control of their landing on the cement floor of the lower level, sending them into a roll and (hopefully) out of sight so far as Sans Sheriff was concerned. 

They tumbled to a stop, Ladybug sprawled on top of Chat Noir… who was still curled up in a tight ball, eyes tightly closed and tensed-waiting for the pain to hit. “Chat?” 

Chat Noirs eyes snapped open in shock and he looked up, meeting Ladybug’s eyes. …and just like that, the fear was gone. “Ladybug?” 

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” Probably best to go for humor, Ladybug figured. She’d find a way of asking if he’d be alright, or if he needed to talk, later, after this was all sorted out. “You okay? The ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ didn’t hit you at all, did it?” 

Chat blinked and glanced down at himself, then looked around at the cement floor and dust covered machines and pipes, the slowly looked up at the metal grating floor above, seeming to only just realize where they were. “I… uh.” He slowly looked from the hole in the grating above where he’d been trapped to Ladybug, his expression star-stuck. “You-?” 

“I can protect you too, you know. Can’t let you have all the fun.” 

That got a huge smile out of her silly kitty, and Ladybug huffed and poked his nose, then moved to stand up, hissing as she put weight on her left leg, seeing stars. 

Okay. That was officially an OW. Chat Noir’s eyes went wide and he slipped out from under Ladybug and got to his knees, checking her leg with cautious hands. “Ladybug?! You got hit?” 

“No, I just landed badly,” Ladybug lied, waving a hand at where they’d landed on the cement. “When I hit you to keep Sans Sheriff’s attack from hitting I kinda… hit like a wrecking ball.” 

Chat blinked at her, confused, his hands still gently checking her leg. 

“I… kinda cannonballed you. …I was all curled up so the command wouldn’t hit me,” she explained. “But that meant that I had to uncurl before we hit the floor to control the landing and… well, I didn’t do the best job.” 

“…You’ll be okay?” 

“Yup. Might be limping a little bit, but if nothing else when I de-transform I’ll be fine.” Anything to wipe away the look of horror on Chat Noir’s face. Ladybug shifted her weight and winced at the sharp stab of pain that raced up her leg. Alright. She officially absolutely and invariably NEVER wanted to find out how bad getting hit full on by the ‘ ** _Pain_** ’ command was, if just being brushed by it hurt THIS much. She looked up and smiled as she realized how easy it was to see Sans Sheriff thanks to her white dress, even in the gloom and from below. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Sans Sheriff edged her way through the ‘halls’ of the basement cautiously, tracking every shadow before proceeding, looking back to see if she could find the source of every sound. This basement was, without a doubt, the WORST possible place for her to do battle in. 

_~I must say that I agree with that thought, my dear Sans Sheriff. …And rather than ascertaining the truth of the matter when it comes to Adrien and Chat Noir… I now instead am faced with even more questions, and- given what has happened- evidence that directly contradicts my theory.~_

Sans Sheriff couldn’t help the shrug. It was likely that Ladybug and Chat Noir were moving into position to defeat her. Both could hide very well in the dark shadows, and even if she was correct in what she had seen and HAD hit Ladybug’s leg with the command… it would not stop or slow down Chat Noir in the slightest. “This is an impasse, Papillon. The point of this experiment, while valid, cannot successfully be reached as the situation stands.” 

_~Agreed. You were never intended for an attempt to capture the Miraculous Stones, and the situation has spiraled out of control. There is nothing more we can learn from this current situation, and while your skill sets are quite useful, in this current situation they are less than ideal. I believe it is time for you to Stand Down. I shall call upon you at a later d-~_

Chat Noir hit Sans Sheriff from behind at his top speed, slamming her into, and through, a wall of pipes before leaping away, to land directly in front of her, laughing. He took a step back, and glanced down for a second as his foot hit one of the mason jars that had fallen off the table he’d smashed Sans Sheriff into back at the start of their fight. Sans Sheriff groaned and started to push herself to her feet… and could only stare as Ladybug’s yoyo raced millimeters in front of her mask to hit the wall behind her on one side of a pipe, rebound off the wall, and then race back towards Sans Sheriff to lasso her torso. 

Chat Noir sneezed and reached forward, grabbing Sans Sheriff’s tablet with his left hand even as he smirked and offered her his usual two-finger salute with his right. 

_Vhiiiizzzzzz!!_

The yoyo retracted, the pipe acting as a pulley as Sans Sheriff was ripped back and away from Chat Noir, her tablet staying firmly in his grasp as she was smashed into the pipe and wall behind it. The yoyo released her and retracted back to Ladybug. 

Chat deliberately turned his back on Sans Sheriff and turned to smile at Ladybug, who was perched on one of the computer consoles. At her nod, he raised his right hand high. 

“Cataclysm!!” 

Chat slapped his right hand down on the tablet, finding gleeful vindictiveness in watching it crumble to a fine black ash. He watched as the akuma, this time a delicate white with sharply scalloped upper wings and bands of teal on it's lower wings, was exposed and flew out of the ash, stepping back so he would not get in Ladybug’s wa- 

“CHAT!!” Ladybug suddenly screamed, and Chat Noir’s attention snapped from the butterfly to his Lady. 

Ladybug was tugging frantically at her yoyo, which had gotten tangled on one of the pipes. It took Chat a second to realize what had happened. 

Ladybug was used to have space around her when she went to capture the Akumas… but this time the space around them was cluttered with pipes… and when she’s started to spin her yoyo to get it up to speed… 

It had hit and tangled on a pipe. 

Chat Noir and Ladybug’s eyes met, then both looked upwards in dawning horror at the escaping Akuma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  As mentioned in the opening notes of each fic, and in more detail in [Chapter 1 of my series bible](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8189071/chapters/25892577), in my fanfic 'verse an Akuma takes on a unique appearance after a Champion accepts Papillon's deal, thus each akuma that flees from a broken Talisman looks different for each Champion, and is reverted to the normal white butterfly after Ladybug 'purifies' them.  
> ~~~~~~
> 
> Papillon is much, MUCH calmer than usual here, because for the first time, the point of Akumatizing someone was not to steal the Miraculous ( _that was literally NEVER his plan with Sans Sheriff_ ) it was solely to confirm or joss the Adrien=Chat theory. And instead of getting a definitive answer… he got a butt load of information that APPARENTLY josses it, but nothing that FLAT OUT josses it. While it would be NICE to get the Miraculi… frankly in the moment it’s painfully obvious even to Papillon that this is not really an option. He’s got a Glass Cannon Champion going up against a pair of Lightning Bruisers… A Glass Cannon in a WHITE dress in a location where her ability to use her ranged attacks is limited at best, the enemy can move freely and sneakily, and she is so anti-stealthy she might as well have a giant neon sign pointing at her. Papillon ( _at least my Papillon_ ) knows when to cut his losses, especially when he was conducting an experiment to determine data rather than his usual ‘GET ME THOSE MIRACULOUS STONES!!’
> 
> Also... that end scene? Is totally why I kept bringing up the pipes in this scene, and tried to create a sort of claustrophobic atmosphere in the abandoned basement section of the story.


	24. Chapter 24

Ladybug frantically yanked at her yoyo, and managed to get it untangled from the pipe it had wound itself around. She got down off the console, nearly falling flat on her face when he left leg sent a white hot burst of pain racing upwards, wobbling and almost giving out beneath her before she caught her balance as she looked around frantically for SOME place with enough clear space for her to get her yoyo up to speed.

But there was nothing. The walking space between the pipes was 1 and a half meters, and barely that. She needed a space somewhere between 2 to 3 meters to get her yoyo up to speed, and she couldn’t throw the yoyo STRAIGHT at the Akuma, she HAD to come at it from the side, and there was no room and the Akuma was still fluttering towards the open door that Adrien and Nino had fled through and the beckoning light. 

Chat Noir suddenly leapt at the fleeing Akuma. Ladybug had just enough time to register that he had something in his hands before Chat was at the Akuma, bringing his hands together around it… 

Or more accurately, catching the Akuma in the mason jar he was holding and slamming the lid on, giving it a savage twist to close it… 

And then he landed- and only then seemed to realize what he’d just done. 

Both Chat Noir and Ladybug FROZE, staring at the white and teal Akuma in the mason jar in silent horror. …or almost silent horror, as Chat was offering a very, very faint whine from the back of his throat in his terror as he and Ladybug waited for the Akuma to phase out of the jar or, worse, to possess the jar, turning it into a talisman and by extension turning Chat Noir into Papillon’s newest Champion. 

A minute trickled past, perhaps two. 

Mademoiselle Bustier de-akumatized behind them and looked around herself with wide eyes. 

Ladybug took a huge breath, because it was that or faint… and the Akuma was still captive in the jar, beating itself against the glass of the jar and the metal of the lid, but neither possessing it or phasing through it. 

Okay. Ladybug took another deep breath and managed to tear her eyes away from the jarred Akuma and looked around frantically, wincing her way to climb up onto one of the consoles to get a better view of the basement before she finally just gave up and limped over to give Mademoiselle Bustier a hand up. “We have to head up stairs, Madame, if you’d please follow us?” 

Mademoiselle Bustier blinked, but then nodded, getting to her feet with Ladybug’s help. Ladybug limped up to Chat and grabbed his shoulder, dragging him along with her up the stairs to the in-use basement, past several shocked looking people who had at least had the sense to stay OUT of the abandoned basement where the battle had been taking place even as they’d apparently flocked to the open door to try and see down into the mess. Ladybug looked around and dragged Chat Noir over to the exit sign, up the stairs and finally to the street, Mademoiselle Bustier still following in their wake. 

Alright. This gave her enough space. 

“Chat… CHAT!” 

Chat jumped and looked up from the jarred Akuma to meet Ladybug’s eyes, his pupils paper-thin slits. 

Ladybug backed up a few strides and shifted her weight until she found her balance with her left leg still hurting as it was. She slid her finger over the top of her yoyo, and the top opened, revealing the shining white light within. Ladybug let the yoyo drop, then began to spin it to get it up to speed. “Let it out of the jar, Chat!” 

Chat Noir blinked, but then nodded. He twisted the lid off, then backed up as the Akuma flew free and raced skywards. 

The yoyo swiped out, capturing the Akuma before it got more than a few feet. Reeling the yoyo back in, Ladybug sighed in relief and tapped the central spot, releasing the now purified Akuma. “Bye, bye little butterfly.” 

Chat Noir dropped to sit on his rump on the sidewalk, looking just as panicked as Ladybug felt. For her part, she leaned against the wall, not wanting to sit with her leg still hurting as it was. “Okay,” Ladybug breathed softly, then looked around, taking in all the people that were still around them, and a short set of beeps made her look to Chat Noir’s ring. 

He was down to just the central pawpad. 

“Okay,” she said, much more firmly. “Chat, you need to head off. We’ll talk about… everything… when we meet up for patrol the day after tomorrow, okay?” 

Chat blinked and then nodded, getting to his feet. He grabbed the mason jar and put the lid back on it, then hesitantly held out his fist, as if he wasn’t certain she wanted to do their traditional fist bump for some reason. Ladybug couldn’t figure out why. …Did he think she blamed him for being taken out of the fight due to the Pain command? Was it something else? 

…Well, that was another thing to add to the list of things to discuss. 

Ladybug pushed off the wall and bumped her knuckles to Chat Noir’s with a broad smile, which earned her a smile in return. 

“Bien joué!” the two chirped, then Ladybug made a shooing motion and with a grand bow, Chat Noir dashed off, mason jar still in hand. 

Ladybug sighed softly, then looked to Mademoiselle Bustier. “I’m certain you’re really confused, Madame. …if you’d like I can stay until the Akuma-unit arrives?” …actually, she probably should call them with her yoyo’s phone to let them know where she and the Akuma-victim had ended up. 

…Where HAD they ended up? 

Ladybug looked around, trying to spot an address or street sign before finally just giving up and using her yoyo’s gps function. 

WOW, they were nearly a full kilometer away from the school!! How had THAT happened? 

“No, it’s alright,” Mademoiselle Bustier said, her voice far calmer than Ladybug was expecting. The rougette smiled when Ladybug stared at her. “I will be alright, to be more precise. If you wish to stay until the Akuma-unit arrives, I won’t stop you of course, but…” she trailed off into silence, then sighed with a small shrug and rueful smile. “I will be alright by myself.” 

Ladybug shifted her weight, hiding a wince as her leg sent another stab of pain through her. “No, Madame, I’ll stay.” She looked around and spotted a small park across the road. A park with park benches tucked beneath it’s trees. “Why don’t we go sit down and wait for them in the park?” If nothing else, waiting until the Akuma-unit arrived would give her the time she should need for the after effects of Sans Sheriff’s attack to wear off with none the wiser. 

Mademoiselle Bustier considered, but then nodded, and the two walked across the street to the park while Ladybug called the Akuma-unit ( _she was so glad that her yoyo could save contacts or frequently called numbers, she was rubbish are memorizing those_ ). 

She pulled up short and looked over her shoulder, certain that for one second she’d faintly heard a familiar voice scream ‘WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!?’ somewhere nearby, and another familiar voice laughing… but she couldn’t see anything odd, nor could she hear anything more of the familiar voices, if they’d been there in the first place. 

“Ladybug?” 

“Hmm? Oh. Nothing. Just thought I heard something, but I must have been mistaken.” Ladybug sat down on a park bench beside Mademoiselle Bustier and hit the call button for the Akuma-unit, then settled in to wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  As mentioned in the opening notes of each fic, and in more detail in [Chapter 1 of my series bible](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8189071/chapters/25892577), in my fanfic 'verse an Akuma takes on a unique appearance after a Champion accepts Papillon's deal, thus each akuma that flees from a broken Talisman looks different for each Champion, and is reverted to the normal white butterfly after Ladybug 'purifies' them.  
> ~~~~~~
> 
> Remember how I kept mentioning the mason jars once they got into the basement?  
> This is why ^_^
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Edit: had a bit of time, so I went back and bulked up the notes with more data, like I wanted to have initially.
> 
> I headcanon ( _Based off evidence from the show_ ) that the akumas can NOT phase through objects. There is actually a LOT of evidence of this in the show. For starters, teh central pane in Papillon's irising window is missing, and that is what we always see the Akumas flying through, rather than them phasing through the present panes of glass. I Origins we also see the butterfly fly through the open front doors of the school. In Climatika we see the Akuma short out the elevator and then FORCE IT"S WAY THROUGH THE DOORS rather than phasing through it. Combine all the small bits of data with the larger bits of evidence such as that, and the most likely conclusion is that unlike Kwamis, akumas can NOT phase through solid objects (the one exception being the jewel on Papillon's staff, and that might be a variant of the possession/talisman creation ability.
> 
>  
> 
> I further headcanon that the akumas need to be up high and in open air to multiply ( _explaining why Stoneheart's went to the top of the Eiffel Tower to multiply before returning to Papillon_ ). Because honestly... why else did the Akuma go THERE to multiply rather than multiplying closer to the stadium ( _it basically crossed the city to get to the Eiffel Tower_ ) or going to Papillon's lair to multiply? It's not like the Eiffel Tower is a central location either, it's way off on one side of Paris ( _Notre Dame is the closest to the 'heart' of the city_ ). So that lead me to 'an akuma that is going to multiply will seek out the highest location it can, and it requires open air around it to do so'... in part to fit with what we see with canon, and in part to create a weakness in the system/weakness to the unstoppable army threat. I have a few other flaws/weakpoints for the army element that I'll likely delve into later.
> 
> I also headcanon that an akuma that's been charged can ONLY possess an object/create a champion for ONE person... thus the mason jar NOT becoming a talisman  
> Thus, a jar both captures them AND keeps them from multiplying!
> 
> *feels rather clever* It's silly, but I still feel proud for coming up with it!


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for this chapter going up late. I caught a nasty stomach bug and was basically bed and bathroom bound for most of the 22nd, the 23rd, and the 24th. Mostly recovered now, but still feeling iiiiiicky :/

Nino was bouncing on his heels, wringing his cap in his hands as he waited in an alleyway and watched the entrance of the building the abandoned-basement had been under. “He’ll be okay, he’ll be okay… I’m just freaking out for no reason. He’s a freaking super hero and he’s super stealthy, he probably is just enjoying beating Sans Sheriff around the basement or something. He’ll be okay. He’ll be okay…”

Maybe if he said it often enough it would be true… or at least maybe he could convince himself of it. It was just… a little hard to wrap his brain around that was all. The idea that his well-meaning, socially naïve, oblivious puppy of a best friend was Chat Noir… Honestly, Nino wondered if he should feel hurt, that Adrien had made no attempt to tell Nino, his first best friend, about… well… THAT. Nino sighed. Then again, a huge part of superheroing was the whole secret-identity thing, right? Maybe Adrien didn’t really have a choice. Or maybe it was Adrien trying to protect Nino. There were a LOT of really sensible reasons for Adrien to have kept Nino out of the loop, so… Nino huffed a sigh. Probably no reason to feel hurt. 

Nino frowned, and stopped bouncing for a second, considering. Actually. What if the black fairy thingy was keeping Adrien from knowing or remembering that he was Chat Noir? That was a possibility, wasn’t it? That was totally a thing that fairies and sprites DID in old tales after all. 

Nino’s frown became a scowl and he dug through his pockets. Okay, so he had his drum sticks, and they were made of oak so that was good. Uhhhhh, oo, salt packets! Salt was good! There was copper wires in the cord for his headphone jacks ( _although did the weakness to copper and bronze apply to European fae? ...Probably best to skip it_ ) He couldn’t find anything iron in his pockets, but a bit of scrounging around yielded a handful of nails and junk that were almost certainly iron. Iron, oak and salt, the three things the fae were most vulnerable to. If the fairie thingy was hurting or using his bro in ANY way, Nino would be able to stop it. …Then he’d have to keep iron on himself at all times, and get Adrien to do the same so the fairie thingy couldn’t get EVEN, but it’d be worth it. 

Nino returned to nervously bouncing in place. Following Adrien when he’d run off in the basement had not been something planned, it had just been instinctive. SOMETHING had obviously been wrong, given how harshly Adrien had been breathing and how he hadn’t seemed to be paying attention to the argument between Chloé and Nino. Nino still wasn’t sure WHAT had been going on… and he honestly couldn’t help feeling a little… jealous? …that Chloé had apparently known what was up with Adrien down in the basement, especially with how she’d just pushed Adrien around until his best bud had been leaning against a wall, like Adrien didn’t get a say in it. And when he’d told her off, she’d gotten ANGRY and all holier-than-thou and things had just… spiraled from there until Adrien had suddenly told them both to stop. 

So when Adrien had said… whatever the ‘not her’ thing was about… to Chloé and run off, Nino had followed his friend, because obviously SOMEONE needed to follow him when something was as wrong as it obviously was. ( _And he totally did not feel guilty for leaving Chloé behind. Nope, nope, nopeNope, nope. …okay he felt a LITTLE bit guilty because she had been in tears, and Adrien had obviously and unintentionally dropped the verbal equivalent of an atomic bomb but… ugh. It was CHLOÉ._ ) Nino had followed Adrien back through the basement until Adrien had stumbled to a stop right by the basement-entrance door. Nino had stopped, not certain if Adrien would want anyone to be there at the moment, not with how Adrien had still been breathing and acting all weird… 

Which meant that Nino had gotten a front row seat when a little cat-eared black fairie had flown out of Adrien’s over-shirt and headbutted Adrien in the temple. Nino hadn’t been close enough to hear what the fairie had said, but he’d certainly been close enough to hear Adrien shout ‘Transform me!’ and see the vibrant green lights and black shadows crawl over his friend, leaving Chat Noir in its wake. 

Chat. Freaking. Noir. 

Chat Freaking Noir who’d run out the basement door and left Nino behind to try and wrap his BRAIN around what he had just seen. Which was very uncool on Chat Noir’s part. 

It had taken a few minutes, but Nino had finally managed to unbreak his brain enough to creep over to the door and crack it open. He’d been just in time to see Chat Noir drop on Sans Sheriff from above, and watch the mess that the ‘fight’ had been ( _Marinette had certainly done a good job distracting Chat Noir, which Nino would bet she felt guilty about_ ). When Ladybug had arrived and pulled Chat up to the roof, Nino had taken one look at the incoming Sans Sheriff, and closed and LOCKED the door. When the door had unlocked itself and started to open, he’d just yanked it closed and locked it again. The acting as if Adrien was with him had… well, given that Adrien WAS Chat Noir, it made it obvious in hindsight that Papillon obviously suspected Adrien so… what was a best bro to do but to try and throw the supervillain off his friends trail? 

Getting lost in the basement had not been part of his plan, but at least Adrien had found him and they had gotten out of there. 

Well. 

Nino had gotten out of there. 

Adrien, once more as Chat Noir, had run back to the abandoned basement to fight Sans Sheriff, leaving Nino to make the easy stair climb to safety all by his lonesome. 

And now Nino stood, bouncing and fretting and freaking… waiting for the door to open and his friend to come out and be alright. 

Nino glanced at his phone. 

Less than a minute since he’d last looked. Maybe six minutes since he’d gotten up and out of the basement. 

Finally, FINALLY the door opened. Nino started to head over, then pulled up short when he realized what he was seeing. 

Ladybug was limping and Chat Noir had a mason jar in his hands, his full attention locked onto the jar. Mademoiselle Bustier followed the two superheroes up and headed off to the side, as if to get out of the way. Ladybug shouted for Chat to ‘let it out’… and when Chat opened the mason jar an Akuma suddenly fluttered free and raced skywards, where Ladybug quickly captured and purified it. 

Nino waited until Ladybug waved Chat Noir off, then followed the black clad hero, jogging down the street as Chat Noir leapt from one rooftop to another, and then finally dropped down into an alley. Nino sped up and darted in just as Chat Noir started to de-transform. 

Which meant that Chat Noir yelped and slapped both hands over Nino’s eyes, knocking his glasses askew and mashing them into Nino's face with a screech of ‘NoDon’tLOOK!!’ which… honestly. 

Nino sighed. “…Adrien. Dude, seriously.” There was a high pitched squeak that HAD to be Adrien, and the same sarcastic snicker that Nino had been hearing in the basement a few minutes ago that was probably the little maybe-evil fairie. Nino reached up and dragged Adrien’s hands away from his face. “Dude, I saw you transform back at the school basement. I KNOW, okay? I know you’re Chat Noir.” 

Adrien stared, eyes wide. “WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!?” 

Nino couldn’t help but laugh. Because SERIOUSLY, what a look. He trailed to a stop and leaned back, and looked at the little black fairie thing when Adrien kept staring at him. “Okay. Little black fairie thingy! You had better be letting my best bud REMEMBER that he’s a really cool superhero and not stealing his memories or other fairie stuff!” Nino held up the drum sticks, salt packets and slightly rusty nails. “Because I am ARMED and READY, dude.” 

The little black fairie thing stared, blinked… and then fell out of the air, cackling. Adrien snapped a hand out and caught the cat-thingy rather than letting it fall to the ground, and then just looked between Nino and the fairie with a poleaxed expression. 

“You DO know you’re Chat Noir, right dude?” 

“Yes? Why wouldn’t I? …Did you seriously just threaten Plagg with salt packets and your drum sticks?” 

“And nails!” Nino said proudly. ' _...and copper wires that may or may not be useless stuffed in my pocket_ ' he added in the privacy of his mind. 

The fairie thingie ( _Plagg?_ ) was rolling on Adrien’s palm, still cackling. 

Adrien nodded, then frowned. “Why…?” 

“…Dude. Really?” Nino held up his drum sticks. “Oak.” He held up the salt packets. “Salt. pure salt at that.” He held up the nails. “Cold iron. I mean a little rust, but still. Cold iron!” 

“…okay?” 

“…How is it with all your super extra over the top fancy home-schooled education you don’t KNOW this stuff? I mean you’re working WITH the fae, you should know BASIC stuff like this!” 

“What’s the fae?” 

Plagg cackle-rolled his way off Adrien’s hand, and without even looking Adrien caught him by the tail and just cupped both of his hands together to form a bed for the cackling fairie. 

Nino groaned and pulled his cap on. “DUDE. Fairies. The Fae. ELFS. Basic French mythology!” 

“…Wait, are you saying you think Plagg’s a fairie?” Adrien asked. 

“…He isn’t?” 

Adrien shook his head and held up the cackling black not-a-fairie. “Nino, meet Plagg. Plagg is a Kwami. …Specifically the quantic kami of Destruction, Bad Luck, Chaos and I think maybe Death.” 

Nino frowned. “That sounds really important. What’s a kami?” 

“Kami are gods.” 

Nino took a huge step back and stared at the cackling cat thing. “That. Is a GOD.” 

Adrien nodded. “Of Destruction.” 

“…the god of destruction, bad luck, chaos and maybe death is a CAT CHIBI!?” 

Adrien nodded. “He likes Camembert and napping.” 

Nino sighed. “Soooooo. Not a fairie.” 

Adrien shook his head. “Nuh uh.” 

“So if I dumped salt on him or pressed my drumstick or a nail against him….” 

“Well, salt is itchy but that’s about it,” a nasally voice commented, as the laughter trailed to a stop. Plagg flew up and out of Adrien’s hands and hovered right in front of Nino’s face. The two stared at each other for a moment before Plagg smiled and flew around to land in one of Adrien’s inside pockets. “Knew I made the right call with having the Kid transform where he did. Welcome to the pride, Nino. You can fanboy with Alya about the whole golden Agreste is the most awesome of superheoes thing when we get back to the school.” There was the sound of ripping plastic, a smell of socks and then gulping sounds. 

Adrien sighed. “Plagg- …Wait what do you mean ‘made the right call’?!” 

Plagg flew up out of Adrien’s pocket, scarfing down a large wedge of camembert cheese. “You think I made you stop and transform while you were still on the basement for the fun of it?” 

Nino blinked. “Uh. Wait. You set up my dude AND me on purpose?” 

Plagg smiled and tossed the piece of cheese up and swallowed it in one gulp. “…I’m old, Kid, I know how to wiggle my way around the rules the Miraculous places on me. And TWO people knowing about you is more fun then none!” 

Adrien groaned. “Somehow I’m gonna be the one that gets in trouble for this, you know that.” 

“Nah!” Plagg snorted. “I’m the NICE Kwami.” 

“No, you aren’t,” Adrien grumbled. 

“…No, I am. I’m just the sort of nice you need. In fact I’m SO nice that I went ahead and recharged so you can transform…" Plagg flew down and grabbed the mason jar that had been sitting by Adrien's feet and shoved it into Adrien's left hand. Adrien' closed his hand around it apparently without even thinking or debating. "That way you and your buddy here can get back to the school so you can call your overlord so she can keep your Dad from freaking out and locking you in a cage.” 

Adrien’s eyes went wide and he slapped his right hand over his person, checking his pockets. “My phone’s still at school!” 

“Yup!” 

Nino started to open mouth to ask what even was going on- 

“Plagg, transform me!” 

There was a flash of green light and dark shadows, and before Nino could even ask what was going on, Chat Noir grabbed him and slung him piggy-back style onto his back, right arm wrapped around Nino’s back, left hand still holding the mason jar for who knew what reason as Chat Noir leapt up to the rooftops and took off at his top speed, Nino koala hugging the superhero with all his strength as the meters FLEW past in a blur. 

In a minute or less, they were at the school, and Chat Noir was dropping Nino off across the street from the school, then darted away to the school on his own ( _probably to find his phone and call his ‘overlord’… which Nino assumed meant Natalie in Plagg speak_ ), leaving Nino to make his way across the street to the front of the school. 

Where he was promptly hit in a tackle hug by Alya. Nino laughed and returned the hug, pressing a kiss to Alya’s cheek. “Alya… there’s something I gotta tell you…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to do an edit the afternoon of the 25th. I realized that I'd made a few spelling/grammatical goofs, forgot to italicize one or two bits, managed to forget to mention Nino's glasses getting knocked askew by Adrien trying to cover his eyes, and forgot the darn mason jar.  
> So I hit edit chapter and corrected where I'd done goofed. VERY minor changes, but I try to mention whenever I do ANY edits to a chapter, so there ya go.


	26. Chapter 26

Ladybug glanced up as the Akuma-unit’s van pulled up beside the park, its distinctive white butterfly overlaying a red circle surrounding it catching the eye of many of those who had been hanging around to watch as Ladybug and Mademoiselle Bustier had sat on the park bench. ( _It honestly never ceased to surprise Ladybug how even the most mundane and boring of things would draw a crowd_ ). Smiling, Ladybug got to her feet and offered Mademoiselle Bustier a polite hand up as the two walked over to the Akuma-unit… well, the ‘Akuma Recovery, Aid, and Assistance Unit’ to use its official name. Once she was certain that Mademoiselle Bustier was well in hand and signed a few autographs from the people who had been standing around waiting, Ladybug lassoed a nearby chimney and with a tug she was off, swinging and running over the rooftops of Paris.

A few minutes later, Ladybug dropped down onto the school rooftop and from there snuck her way down to the second floor and Mademoiselle Bustier’s classroom. She detransformed and sighed softly in relief as she grabbed her backpack and purse, pulling both on. Smiling, Marinette started to head out of the room when a soft ‘ahem’ from her purse made her pause. 

Marinette glanced down and found Tikki aiming a stern look at her. “Tikki? What-?” 

“Don’t forget the packet for the class project, Marinette,” Tikki scolded gently. “You know as well as I do that despite what happened with Mademoiselle Bustier; life, and more specifically this project, still goes on.” 

Marinette groaned and slumped back to the desk and picked up the packet of papers, stuffing them into her backpack before stomping out of the room. Ugh. And that probably meant she would still be working with Sabrina for THIS project as well… She hoped Mademoiselle Bustier wouldn’t remember the whole ‘Marinette and Chloé work together’ thing. There was no way the universe was THAT cruel, right? 

Marinette headed out to the front of the school, pausing at the top of the stairs as she looked around to see who was still at the campus and what each was up to. Surprised at how many students were still milling around, she pulled out her phone and blinked. Wow. The whole time with Sans Sheriff, from possession to purification to getting back to school had been less than 20 minutes! Alya’s livestream had cut off some 10 or 12 minutes ago ( _when Marinette checked it, it looked like Alya had hit the stop or power button again while looking for Ladybug_ ) but about… 3 minutes ago Alya had blogged that Nino, Adrien and Chloé were all accounted for, and that the Akuma was all sorted out, and that Principal Damocles had declared the school day to have ended early, despite there still being a good 40 minutes left. 

No wonder most of the student body was still here. While everyone, so far as Marinette knew, lived within ten minutes driving ( _or bus-riding_ ) from of the school, an Akuma incident being over and done with THIS fast was… well, pretty much a first as far as she could remember. Everybody had probably hidden in or near the school rather than risk being out in the open. With the school day a bust, everyone was probably waiting for rides home, figuring out if the buses they used were running normal patterns or if they’d changed due to Akuma related nonsense, or possibly just to check on their friends and make sure everyone was accounted for an alright. 

At the base of the stairs, standing in the grassy nook beside the railing, Alya and Nino were happily chatting at and around a subdued ( _and worried looking_ ) Adrien. Marinette took a slow breath in. “I can do this. I can DO this…” she let the breath out and walked down the stairs, keeping her attention on her friends. She was proud. She was CONFIDENT. She was IN COMMAND. She was- 

-tripping on someone’s bookbag and should have been paying attention to where her feet were oh no she was falling and this was going to HURT and- 

Her face smushed into a black shirt as arms wrapped around her chest, arresting her fall and then holding her up until she got her feet under her. 

…Okay. It was official. All stairs were evil and were out to get her and from now on she needed to REMEMBER that detail and plan for the fact that the stairs were trying to DESTROY HER LIFE. 

“You okay?” 

“Yes,” Marinette mumbled, face still smushed into black fabric ( _WOW this was an amazing fabric. …Was Adrien’s shirt 100 count EGYPTIAN COTTON or something? His clothes looked so ORDINARY but… his dad was a fashion designer, it made sense that understated wealth would be a thing, didn’t it?_ ). She shifted and got her feet under her and stood up, staring down at Adrien’s shoes. “Thanks for catching me?” 

She could hear the smile in his voice. “No problem, Marinette.” 

Okay, this was progress! She was talking to Adrien after completely embarrassing herself and she wasn’t stuttering or being a wreck and her blushes were fading!! 

…Now if she could just do this WHILE looking higher than the stripes on his shirt. 

…baby steps. Just… Baby steps were good enough. 

... 

Marinette leaned forward, blinking, and Adrien took a step back before stopping. “Uh, Marinette, what-?” 

“The stripes aren’t black!” 

“The str-OH! …No. My Dad really likes subtle elements in the ‘plains clothes’ line, things that make people look again, you know? So…” Adrien waved at his shirt. “Dark olive stripe wedged between yellow and green, and dark aqua wedged between green and blue. Then our eyes do all the work of tricking us. It’s… kinda cool?” 

Marinette nodded and looked up, smiling to meet Adrien’s eyes. “Yeah. It is.” 

PROGRESS! 

Alya suddenly threw her arms around Marinette, dragging her into a hug, making Marinette squeak. 

“GIIIIRL! I am SO. SORRY.” 

“Wh- Alya, why would you be-” 

“You’re okay, right?” 

“Yes,” Marinette answered promptly, glad that the pain from being brushed by Sans Sheriff’s attack had worn off before she’d come back to school. 

“What HAPPENED, Girl? Where did you go? I’m really sorry, I just went to go up the stairs to the roof, but just as I got like… almost all the way to the roof I realized that you weren’t with me anymore!” Alya hugged Marinette tightly. “And I’m sooooooooo sorry about that. I woulda gone to find you but… Well, I was hoping you were okay, but I knew- um… my other friend wasn’t, so I just went up to the roof, but I’m still sorry- and please don’t be angry?” 

Marinette blinked, and then smiled. Oh good, this made EVERYTHING easier!! She hugged Alya. “No, it’s cool! When Chat… When you ran off I stayed behind for a second so I could see where and what Sans Sheriff was up to, but by the time I did that and turned around I… kinda lost track of you? So I found a place to hide until you texted the all clear.” 

Alya heaved a sigh of relief. “Oh good. I’m glad you’re okay, Mari. I’m sorry, it just- I was scared something had happened to you!” 

Marinette shook her head, smiling broadly. “Nope. Nothing interesting ever happens to me,” she lied happily. 

Adrien’s limo pulled up, and to Marinette’s surprise, both Nino and Alya grabbed their bags as well. “Hey, what’s-?” 

“According to Natalie, Adrien’s Dad wants me to fill him in on what went down in the basement and stuff,” Nino explained as he pulled his school bag onto his shoulder. “Alya’s coming with cause her Mom invited Adrien to dinner t’ pay Adrien back for helping Alya with her Physics project-” 

“AND I’m coming to stomp on Nino’s foot to keep him from sticking it in his MOUTH like he apparently did before the whole Bubbler and birthday party thing,” Alya said smugly. 

Adrien offered a bashful smile and shrugged a shoulder when Marinette looked at him. “You could come too if you want, Marinette? But you probably won’t want to, my Father… I don’t know how he’s going to- …I mean there as an Akumatized person chasing me, so… and-” Adrien broke off and just shrugged again as he scuffed one foot. 

Marinette looked to Alya to see what she thought of it. Alya considered for a minute, but finally shrugged. “Probably best if you don’t come, Marinette… Just me being there might make things a mess, and it’s kinda already a live mine field. I mean the whole ‘dinner’ thing was mostly so I had an excuse to come because SOMEONE has no clue how to talk to or interact with people over a certain age. Or Income.” 

Nino mock scowled at Alya, who stuck her tongue out at him. 

Marinette nodded. “That makes sense.” ESPECIALLY when you considered what had happened the LAST time Nino had tried to have a talk with Adrien’s dad. Avoiding a repeat performance of the Bubbler was a GOOD thing. Alya obviously had a better handle on how to interact with the man, given the whole talk that had happened on Friday after Madame Mort. And maybe Natalie would help out again like she had last Friday. 

Marinette watched as her friends got into Adrien’s limo and drove away. She sighed quietly. “Good luck.” 

“They’re going to need it,” Tikki muttered softly from Marinette’s purse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my defense, A: Mari actually DOES trip on stairs in the show and it’s adorable and usually because she wasn’t paying full attention to where she’s putting her FEET rather than her being clumsy. And B: pretty much every time she does, Adrien is the one to catch her. 
> 
> Mostly I’m just hoping that now that (my) Mari has figured out that you need to pay at least SOME attention to where your feet are when on stairs, she’ll have less trouble with them.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay, everyone. There was holiday issues, illness, injury and then I was attacked by the plotbunny of doom ( _actually forget plotbunny… PlotFrith done did sic PlotEl-ahrairah on me_ ) and I literally HAD to get the scene(s) written down before I could get ANY work done on Sans Sheriff. On the plus side, it’s already 12k words and my betas think it’s awesome and angsty and plotty so YAY! On the negative side it’s 3 or 4 fics down the road. …Also on the plus side, to make up for missing a post, here is a roughly double-length chapter post! ^^

This was actually going better then she had expected.

Adrien honestly wasn’t as much help as she’d been hoping, but then again he was probably feeling more than a little overloaded by this point, and facing down his father when he was THIS worked up likely NEVER went well for Adrien. Honestly, Alya was beginning to see why Adrien seemed to be incapable of saying ‘No’ to anyone or anything if this was how arguments usually went in the Agreste household. 

Nino was… well, Nino was Nino, that about it summed it up. Alya had purposefully arranged things so that she and Nino stood shoulder to shoulder BEHIND Adrien. It put more focus on Adrien who actually had a decent poker face and REALLY good body language control, it was who Monsieur Agreste wanted to focus on ANYWAY, it made Alya and Nino seem ‘subservient’ to Monsieur Agreste ( _and there was no way Alya was relaying THAT though process to Adrien, he’d be mortified and refuse to stand in front of anyone ever again or something-and that took away half of the USES of the adorable pretty-boy sunshine child who was such a good DISTRACTION. No, no there was no way Adrien was going to find out about this_ ), and most importantly, it let Alya stomp on Nino’s foot or jab him with her elbow as needed without Monsieur Agreste noticing. 

She had finally resorted to just leaving her foot on top of Nino’s and shifting her weight onto it every few words. She loved her boyfriend to bits but good God in heaven he needed to install a brain-to-mouth-filter. She had a pretty good feeling just how BAD the ‘birthday party’ talk had gone now. 

Alya felt that she was doing… decently. Not great. Not as awesome as she did in the Principal’s office after Madame Mort, but she’d had the momentum then, and a bunch of facts to keep Monsieur Agreste off balance. This time he was on his home turf, he had all the facts ( _a scary amount of facts actually. Alya was beginning to suspect that someone at the school, if not the class, was giving Monsieur Agreste info_ ), and he had pretty much already made up his mind. Alya figured if it’d just been the three of them, she might, MIGHT, have been able to get Monsieur Agreste to have agreed to let Adrien keep going to public school, but Adrien would have had pretty much all of his other freedoms stripped away so he could be stuffed back into the ‘safety’ of the gilded cage. 

Fortunately, it wasn’t just the three of them. 

Standing behind Nino and Alya, hands calmly clasped behind her back, was Natalie and behind her, Adrien’s bodyguard. 

Alya really, REALLY liked Natalie right now. She seriously and completely had done a 180 on her previous thoughts on the woman and was at this particular moment wondering if she could make some pompoms or flags or something. The bodyguard she wasn’t 100% certain on, as he had thus far been silent, but Monsieur Agreste kept looking at him so maybe he was nodding or shaking his head or maybe he was telepathic or something. He seemed to be solidly on Adrien’s side of the equation though. 

Natalie was, at least in the moment, the most AWESOME of allies. Between Natalie and Alya’s careful work, Monsieur Agreste had already agreed to allowing Adrien to continue going to public school… and Alya had managed to poke Adrien HARD in the small of the back to stop his effusive thanks before he accidentally lost the war while celebrating the first battle. 

Natalie had managed to let Adrien keep most of his extra-curricular activities ( _and had talked Monsieur Agreste out of getting Adrien a second bodyguard_ ) and now Natalie and Alya were cautiously trying to convince Monsieur Agreste that SURELY going to a verified safe location, such as… say a four bedroom home of reasonable size near Monnaie de Paris, the Institut de France, the National School of Fine Arts and the Académie Nationale de Médecine amoung others… JUST as an example of course… once a week or so to spend time with school friends and have a small taste of freedom while still staying safe… 

Or that’s what Alya got out of it. Natalie polished it a LOT shiner then Alya ever could have, and she did it all in a completely calm, almost detached, manner. Alya did her best to imitate Natalie, seeing at that seemed to be the winning strategy… and now that she thought about it, Adrien’s subdued manner was likely HIS version of Natalie’s calm behavior. 

Honestly, she was just glad that Natalie and ( _apparently without talking_ ) the Bodyguard had managed to steer the conversation away from Chloé, signed papers for school assignments, overwork and under-eating. This mess was tricky enough with the discussion of an Akumatized Champion apparently focusing on Adrien. …Although Nino had helpfully pointed out that said focus DID seem to be tied with the fact that Adrien and Nino had panicked and flipped a table at Sans Sheriff in order to escape, rather than anything else. 

That had led to talks about Panic Attacks which Nino had beautifully, if unintentionally, derailed by trying to find out what a panic attack actually WAS. After finally getting a solid explanation, Alya had added another tick to her worry box when she got a good look at the expression on Nino’s face out of the corner of her eye. 

Something had happened in the basement. Something that apparently was a lot like a panic attack. 

After more careful work ( _primarily by Natalie_ ), Gabriel had finally agreed to a sleepover at Alya’s house this evening, provided that Adrien’s bodyguard remained near-by or ( _even better in Monsieur Agreste’s opinion_ ) stayed at Alya’s house too… apparently he could sleep in… a closet? Or something? Alya had no clue where Monsieur Agreste thought the man would be sleeping… wait, did he think the guy would be sleeping in the living room or, even worse, in Alya’s room? NOOOOO thank you! 

Fortunately, that detail was being left up to the Bodyguard, who both Adrien and Nino seemed to consider overall ‘cool’. So there was hope there at least. Monsieur Agreste reminded Adrien to stick to his diet, and paused, considering, when Natalie raised both of her eyebrows. 

“…No. I will speak to his dieticians and the other people involved in the matter to see what changes need to be made to Adrien’s diet, but in the mean time…” 

The bodyguard shifted his weight and Alya wished she dared to look over her shoulder at him, given the subtle change in Monsieur Agreste’s expression before he sighed. 

“Very well. Adrien I am allowing you a leave of one week from your diet. Please do not disappoint my generosity. By weeks end, a new diet plan, one that hopefully will not leave you feeling hungry, will be in place.” 

“Yes, Père,” Adrien said in the same quiet, polite, tone he’d used for almost the entire debacle. “I…THANK YOU, Père.” 

“For…?” 

“For… for letting me continue to go to school, and keep m-modeling and my other activities and… and for letting me still spend time with my friends.” 

“Do not stutter, Adrien.” 

“Sorry, Père.” 

“…But… you are welcome. Go enjoy yourself… you have my permission for your friends to ride with you from Mademoiselle Césaire’s house to school tomorrow morning.” 

Adrien’s eyes gained a small sparkle at that. “Thank you, Père.” 

Alya was 90% certain that she imagined the faint gentle smile Monsieur Agreste gave Adrien at that, but Natalie was suddenly shooing them out of the foyer and to Adrien’s room so Adrien could put together an overnight bag, then heading off to go do… whatever her job was ( _Alya needed to ask Adrien what her job actually WAS_ ) while the bodyguard put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder, and then headed off to probably get his own overnight bag together and prep the car ( _And maybe polish his taser, or maybe even his gun, there had been a few times that Alya had seen the man reach for the inside of his jacket in a very… SERIOUS… manner that made her think the man was armed… and quite possibly wearing basic body armor and some bodyguards could be armed with guns legally in France..._ )… Adrien now all but bouncing as he bounded about his room, grabbing clothes and the various supplies he seemed to think he needed. Plagg obviously and vocally decided that hanging out in Adrien’s shirt pocket was too much like a rollercoaster and flew over to sit on the brim of Nino’s hat. 

Alya shifted her weight to one side and popped her hip, watching Adrien work himself further and further up into a gleeful frenzy. 

“I have the distinct feeling that he’s never had a sleepover before.” 

“Probably right, Dude.” 

“I just hope he doesn’t start climbing the walls,” Plagg said with a sigh. 

Alya started to laugh, then paused and eyed the rock climbing walls that covered more than half of Adrien’s room, her eyes following the zipline and taking the other ‘what even’ elements of the room. She then added Adrien’s trend of parkouring about even as a civilian whenever he thought he could get away with it. “Just how… literal is ‘stir crazy, climbing the walls and cabin fever' in relation to a certain sunshine child?” 

Plagg snickered. “He’s spent up to a full month at least once since I’ve met him NEVER TOUCHING THE FLOOR OF HIS ROOM.” 

Alya and Nino both groaned. 

Alya poked Nino as she watched Adrien bound into the bathroom. “Does he really use ALL that stuff?” 

“Professional model, babe. …I think the more flashy makeup is so you can try some stuff out though, cause you mentioned him helping you out with that, remember?” 

Alya blinked up at Nino. “I did what? When?” 

“Library. Day after Madame Mort. Power Nap.” 

“OH! …Wow, I forgot about that. …Is that GLITTER?” 

“Yes and we probably don’t want to know WHY he has like… fifty bags of glitter makeup. Let’s just go with ‘model thing’, okay?” 

Alya blinked. “…I wonder if he’d let me paint his nails.” 

“He’s got a shoot in a day or two, so probably not. …Otherwise he’d probably think it’s the best thing ever, especially if you tell him it’s a sleepover staple.” 

“It IS a sleepover staple.” 

“…What, really?” 

“…Do I want to know what guys do at sleepovers?” 

“…Mostly watch movies and play video games and just… hang out?” 

“Huh. Kinda dull but okay. …You almost done, Adrien?” 

“Yeah! Just need to grab some uh-” Adrien trailed to a sputtering stop, blinking, then he smiled. “Need to grab Plagg’s cheese.” 

Alya rolled her eyes. “So easily amused.” 

Adrien scowled at them. “I’m not AMUSED, it’s just… It’s nice to not have to try and come up with excuses. I’m BAD at excuses, okay? …I’m bad a lying in general.” 

Nino blinked once, then doubled over laughing, which made both Adrien and Alya eye him in confusion. 

“Sh-sh-SHOWER!” Nino cackled. “I always wondered what the Hell was up with the SHOWER!” 

Adrien’s cheeks and ears flamed red… and the color spread to encompass his entire face, neck and shoulders as Nino kept cackling. 

“Ohhhhhhhhh. Oh man, bro, I always thought you were bad at lying but… ohhh, I didn’t realize HOW bad.” 

Adrien made a tiny choking sound and buried his face in his hands. 

“Oh, can’t wait to hear THIS.” 

“PleaseDon’tTellAlya!!” 

“Nooope. Sorry. Sleepover staple. Everyone must tell one embarrassing story about themselves.” 

“*I* have to explain the shower excuses?!” Adrien wailed. 

“Whoa, whoa, wait…” Alya bit her lips and swallowed a laugh. “ExcusES?” 

“…glk…” 

“…This sleep over is gonna ROCK.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: 1/6/17  
> So I dun goofed. When I wrote this chapter I honestly thought that there was a third 'shower' excuse scene in the series (outside of Jackaday and Volpina) which is why Adrien has the line of 'ExcusES' when Volpina hasn't happened in-verse yet.  
> But I really really love the line soooooo...  
> Adrien has used the 'in the shower' excuse at LEAST once prior to this 'off camera'. At least once with Ladybug, and he's used it at school and the like (gym showers) due to Akumas.  
> To quote Tikki: That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Rewatched Pire Noel a couple dozen times and I figured out at the very least the direction Pire Noel went in when he left Le Grande Paris, AND that he did NOT get far before Ladybug and Chat Noir attacked and then got thrown to Alya’s house. …Given the size of the apartment, Alya’s family is VERY well to do ( _oddly enough, perhaps not quite as well to do as the Dupain-Chengs, who own an entire corner of a building across the Seine from NOTRE DAME in the 5th arrondissement. That is both more square footage… easily double, perhaps even triple… what we see at Alya’s, and is in a MUCH higher price point locale_ ). So I looked around in areas where Pire Noel likely could have gone and figured out a rough section where there are apartments, flats, condos and the like to rent and own and went ‘Alright, Alya’s in here SOMEWHERE’. Current address is: 20 Rue Jacob 75006 Paris, 6th arrondissement.
> 
>  ~~Unrelated, but I actually am seriously considering using the Natalie spelling of Nathalie in my fics as her name in French actually uses the hard T rather than the soft TH. ( _Compare to Nathanaël, who’s name DOES use the soft TH in the French dub_ ). It’s a minor detail, but usually when the Nathalie spelling is used, it uses the soft TH… so the fact that they’re using the common pronunciation but not the common spelling BUUUUUGS me.~~  
> Edit: Finally decided to use the Natalie spelling during Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and went back and changed all of the instances of her name to thus


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor spoiler warning for Pire Noël, as said episode showed us Alya’s family. If you do not want ANY spoilers, please wait on reading this chapter until you feel that the statute of spoilers has ended ( _although it is a MINOR spoiler; heck, I don’t even name drop_ ) I also go into spoiler territory with my end notes, so PLEASE BE WARNED.

Alya stretched out on the couch, lacing her fingers together and laying them on her stomach as she stared up at the ceiling. Nino had claimed the second couch and was currently laying on his stomach on it, his pillow folded in half to make it bigger as he rested his chin on it and idly checked his phone, reading his emails. Tucked up on the floor alongside the couch in an old sleeping bag was Adrien, who ( _even obviously falling asleep_ ) seemed still thrilled by the novelty of a sleeping bag. 

“You are SO easily amused,” Alya said, laughing, and after a moment’s thought sat up and looked towards the hallway, listening carefully. Apparently her Mom had seen the livestream of the battle, so Alya had had little trouble convincing her to let Nino and Adrien sleepover tonight ( _and her mom had been very understanding of Adrien's bodyguard, and had even invited the man to share dinner with everyone, and let him sleep in the Den_ ), and there had been plenty of hugs for both Alya and her friends, as well as fresh baked chocapocalypse cookies, which were so dark and chocolatey that they absorbed all available light as well as the meows and hearts of little lost kittens... There had also been what to Alya had been an overload of fussing, but... well, after watching the livestream herself, she could see WHY her family was worried. Despite that, the master bedroom, and her siblings’ bedrooms were quite, as was the den/guest room that her Mom had let Adrien’s Bodyguard use for the night. 

All was silent. 

Well, except for her Mom’s snores. 

She leaned over and poked a small lump in the sleeping bag. “Plagg,” she hissed. 

Plagg phased out of the sleeping bag. “Whaaaaaat?” he mock-hissed back as Adrien seemed to wake out of the half-doze he’d been in with a huge yawn, rolling over onto his back to blink up at Alya and Plagg. 

Alya stuck her tongue out at him. “Can we, you know, talk about… STUFF with my family and the Bodyguard in rooms just down the hall?” 

Plagg snickered. “Oh yeah, the Glamour covers that. If it didn’t don’t you think the Kitten or the buglet would have gotten found out by now? They talk to us ALL the TIME in public places and right in front of people… or at least right behind their backs.” 

Nino slid off his couch to sit on the floor beside Alya’s leaning back against her legs, sticking his own legs out and using Adrien as an ottoman. “What’s the Glamour?” 

“I second that question,” Alya said. “You mentioned it once or twice before but-” 

“If you don’t know the Rules then you don’t know how to bend ‘em, or which ones you can get away with breaking?” Plagg asked, with a suspiciously vicious glint in his eyes. 

Alya shrugged. Well… Yeah, actually. 

Adrien yawned and stretched slightly and pushed himself up onto his elbows. “Alya, you know Ladybug pretty well, right? Or at least you see her a bunch and talk to her, film her, all that stuff.” 

“I do with you as well,” Alya said, frowning. 

Adrien shrugged. “Nowhere near as much as her, but that isn’t the point. Without pulling up any pictures, tell me what she looks like.” 

Alya frowned. “Petite. Shorter than you. Athletic build. Noirette with pigtails. Blue eyes. Pale.” 

Adrien smiled, a bit sadly. “Now, describe Chat Noir. Not ME, just… picture Chat in your head and describe him.” 

Alya sighed. “Tall. Lean and athletic. Mussed blond hair. Light tan. Green cat eyes.” 

“Do I look like Chat Noir?” 

“Well, kinda but only a li-” Alya’s jaw clicked shut. 

“…Holy shit,” Nino breathed. 

Adrien nodded. 

Alya looked to Plagg, who smirked. “Now if you really want your brain to break, think about this. Every time you’ve seen him as Adrien since seeing the truth, you’ve called him Adrien, you both had to stop and THINK to say Chat Noir.” The Kwami leaned back, arms crossed. “Then strike that and reverse it for when you saw and talked to him while he was Chat Noir. The Glamour is POWERFUL, even knowing the truth, it applies to you. When blondie here got hit by that Pain word, you screamed CHAT, you called him Chat and Chat Noir, even when you thought you were alone.” 

Alya blinked a few times. “I… yeah, I did. The Glamour screws with people’s heads?” 

Adrien winced, looking away, and Plagg glanced at his Chosen with a sad expression before he returned his attention to Alya and Nino and smirking again. “Pretty much yeah. It’s harmless really, passive stuff. It just makes the part of your brain that identifies and remembers things about people skip track and… not record everything. It does the same thing with computers and the like. Anything that ‘identifies’ someone won’t work.” 

“Works on voices too,” Nino said. “I mean I am REALLY good at voices, but man… Adrien I’d swear that you didn’t really sound like Chat Noir.” 

“Blood, hair, fingerprints, anything that can be used to identify us becomes something that the computer can’t sort out and’ll even short out over,” Adrien said. “It even identify something like blood type or glucose levels.” 

“Glucos- …Adrien, please tell me you’re not diabetic.” 

“Okay. I’m not diabetic, Alya. …But Victor, my main photographer, is; and I was feeling really dizzy the week before last, kinda almost fainted, so he had me check to see if my blood sugar was low. Glucose meter had nothing but error messages.” 

“So… it works when you’re not suited up too?” 

“It’d have to,” Plagg said. “Especially when these two think ducking around a Morris column and talking to their shirt or purse is the height of stealth.” He snickered. “The glamour isn’t as STRONG when they’re powered down. …Actually it’s pretty much ‘off’ except when the Kwami gets involved, since the glamour isn’t really for THEM, it’s for us.” 

“Okay dude, you lost me.” 

Plagg snickered. “The glamour is tied to US, the Kwamis, not our wielders. When we’re powering them, they get the full package deal, because we ARE the suit, more or less. When we’re separate they’re only getting the side benefits, because the glamour is protecting US from being seen or discovered, not them. Get it? I was in Adrien’s pocket when he was trying to check with the glukey thingy, it mighta worked if I’d been in the supply boxes.” 

Alya blinked. “That… actually makes sense. I mean as much as anything.” She frowned. “Wait, does that mean it works on them too?” 

Adrien flopped onto his back, scowling. “Yeeeeeeeeees.” 

“So… even though you work with Ladybug all the time, at least once a week…” 

“…all I’ve got is what you described and that I know… her. How she acts, how she reacts… kinda how she thinks.” 

Nino winced. “That… sucks dude, sorry.” 

Adrien shrugged, face expressionless. 

Alya stuck out a foot and shoved his shoulder. “Keeping this on track… does that mean we can talk without my parents, sisters or your bodyguard listening in?” 

Adrien frowned, considering that before he pushed himself back up onto his elbows and shrugged, then looked to Plagg, who made a show of hemming and hawing and stroking his chin. He snickered when Adrien swatted at him and dropped down to sit on Adrien’s head. “Yeah. Especially since I’m out and about. …but that actually brings up a point.” Plagg pointed at Alya, then Nino. “Don’t talk about what you know unless you’re near Adrien and you know I’m there. There’s recording equipment EVERYWHERE now, people talking on phones, people at the window, security cameras, you name it.” 

Alya pouted. 

“NO,” Plagg stated firmly. 

“What, not even in my ROOM?” 

“…Didn’t you JUST want to know if the glamour would keep your family from hearing this? What’s to keep them from listening in at the door?” 

Alya groaned. “Okay, point. …but what about on a street? I mean there aren’t cameras EVERYWHERE…” 

Plagg groaned and buried his face in his paws. “There are some rules that you really SHOULD NOT break, and only bend CAREFULLY.” 

“I’d kinda like not to have the world know who I am, Alya,” Adrien offered in a soft tone of voice. “I already told you why.” 

Alya paled sharply. “Oh. …That… but…” she slumped. “…okay.” 

Adrien smiled weakly. “Thank you.” 

Nino held up a hand. “Can I get filled in on what just happened?” 

Alya sighed. “I’ll tell you later. …I can do that without talking about Chat Noir and identities.” 

Nino grumbled, but nodded. “I’m guessing the sum up of all this is ‘do your absolute best not to talk about or spill the super-secret beans unless Plagg’s chillin’ with us’?” 

“Yup, pretty much.” 

Nino sighed, but shrugged. “As superhero rules go, that isn’t so bad. And I think I’ve read enough comics to know how often loose lips sink ships.” 

Alya blinked at that, and then slowly nodded. 

“And on THAT subject,” Plagg said, frowning. “You both have to keep your cool, ESPECIALLY if I’m not there.” 

Alya and Nino exchanged glances, but Adrien’s eyes went wide. “Oh.” 

“What ‘Oh’? What are you ‘oh’ing?” Alya demanded. 

“The Glamour protects me, more or less, from Akumas…” 

“And I do the rest,” Plagg said. “And I can extend that protection to you two if I want, but the Glamour and I can only protect you if you’re NEAR.” 

Nino froze. “…If we get angry and get re-akumatized… What we know Papillon knows.” 

Adrien nodded. 

“FUCK,” two voices said in perfect sync. 

Adrien blushed, eyes darting between Nino and Alya. 

“...Did you really just-” Alya facepalmed. “Good God in Heaven give me strength, he blushes at bad words. …Okay so I’ve already been doing my best to not let myself get… as worked up as I did that time with Lady Wifi, because being Akumatized... not fun... but, I can work harder at it. Maybe look up stuff to help people calm down faster like… breathing patterns or something?” 

“Or Prozac,” Nino grumbled. 

Adrien shrugged. “I know a few things that work for panic attacks, so maybe they’ll help if you get angry or upset too?” 

Nino frowned. “…so that WAS a panic attack. I was hoping it wasn’t.” 

Alya glanced at Nino, then looked to Adrien. “Do you… have them often?” 

Adrien sighed. “No. Not really? I used to have them more, but it’s been a while since the last one, that’s… kinda why these were so bad. I don’t… really want to talk about it though. Okay?” 

Nino squeezed Alya’s knee and Alya nodded. “Okay. We won’t talk about that, at least not right now.” She suddenly bounced to her feet, almost stepped on Adrien and bounded over to the message center, booting up the laptop. “Okay, totally switching gears but I just remembered this! Come on, it’s really cool!” 

Nino and Adrien exchanged glances. Nino shrugged and headed over to the message center, Adrien following in his wake, Plagg still on top of his head. 

Nino leaned in to look at the laptop and frowned. “Is this a costume site?” 

“Yup!” 

Adrien tilted his head ( _making Plagg yelp and scramble to keep from sliding off_ ). “What’s cool about a costume site?” 

“THIS,” Alya said, dramatically clicking an icon with her mouse pointer, “Is what’s cool.” 

Nino’s eyes went wide. “Whoa. Those are HIGH END.” He leaned forward. “Hey, Adrien, are these as accurate as I think they are?” 

Adrien walked around to Alya’s free side and all but pressed his nose against the laptop screen as he examined the Ladybug and Chat Noir costumes, which made Alya snicker. “Wow. These are AMAZING… they even got the texture right on mine at least… Ladybug’s looks right too.” He leaned back slightly, frowning. “Oh! This must be where Chloé got hers.” 

Alya blinked. “What?” 

Adrien looked down at her and smirked. “What, you think she made her ladybug costume or something? Chloé’s many things but she can’t lay a single stitch, the last time she tried she sewed her FINGERS with the machine. She's still got the scars on her fingertips from it.” 

Alya shrugged. “I just figured she got her ‘Daddy’ to have someone make it for her, like she did with the bowler hat.” 

Adrien shrugged. “Yeah… and this is how it woulda been done. This is TOP NOTCH stuff, and crazy accurate. Why have people try to make something that might not look perfect when you can just send your specific measurements and get perfection first go?” 

Nino blinked. “I guess that makes sense. …Explains how Sabrina got the high end Chat Noir costume too. Buying from here probably costs less then having something tailor made from scratch I’ll bet.” 

Adrien nodded. “Which is another reason Chloé woulda gone for this.” He glanced at Alya and tapped the mouse, raising his eyebrows in silent question, smiling when Alya let him have the mouse. He scrolled through the pages, looking at the costumes and the information provided. “Huh. Wonder what she did with the wigs and contacts.” 

“What do you mean?” Nino asked, leaning over. 

“The site only sells package deals,” Alya explained. “If you buy a costume you get a matching wig and contact set. Probably them making sure they don’t have to put a tons of wigs up for cheap and lose money long run when people don’t buy it or something.” 

“Wouldn’t she have just tossed ‘em?” Nino asked. 

Adrien shook his head, muffling a yawn with one hand. “No way. Chloé’s a HUGE believer in ‘waste not, want not’. Place like this, the wigs and contacts are probably high end too, no way Chloé would basically throw money away. She’s probably got them stored wherever she keeps her costume just in case she decides to use ‘em at some point, now that I think about it.” 

Nino snickered. “I’m trying to imagine a noirette Chloé in pigtails… or Sabrina as a blonde instead of a rougette with green cat-eye contacts.” 

Alya smirked. “Now I have to apply my horrible photoshopping skills to the task…” 

Nino snickered again. “Can’t wait to see it, babe.” 

Adrien yawned again, then stretched. “I think I’m gonna go sleep. …Is that okay?” 

Alya reached over and ruffled Adrien’s hair. “It’s cool. I want to look at the costume variants… the Chat Calicot is really cool looking and I wanna see if they do coupons or sales or anything so I can get it for Mardi Gras or Carnaval de Paris or Halloween or something.” 

Adrien nodded and offered a small wave, heading over to the sleeping bag and snuggling his way into it, his back to the room at large. Within seconds, he was asleep. Alya glanced at Nino and pulled up a new tab and typed in the search bar. 

**Talk later? Maybe not about THOSE things but about normal Adrien things?** 

Nino nodded and gave Alya a hug and kiss, then went to his couch and curled up to sleep as well. 

Alya yawned and closed the extra tab and started to get up… then plopped back down, because darn it the calico cat version of the ‘Chat Noir’ costume looked really, REALLY cool and maybe they DID have coupons or sales sometimes?! 

Five minutes of internet time later, and Alya gave up. 

There was no way she could afford one of the full costumes, at least not until she got herself a full time job or something. But she just couldn’t not get SOMETHING… 

Alya pulled up the ‘small items’ page of the site and browsed through the selection of earrings, yoyos and batons. She trailed to a stop when she got to the rings. The metal rings came in a wide range of colors and sizes, each with a flat ‘face’ of plastic tinted to look like metal that used LEDs under the tinted plastic of the face to replicate the glowing pawprint of Chat’s real ring, and pressing on the ‘claws’ of the face of the ring made the toepads wink out one by one. 

And there was a ‘Chat Calicot’ ring. Silver metal and silver-metal-looking plastic face, with a pawprint that had a white central pawpad and two white toes, one ‘black’ toe ( _actually a dark purple it looked like_ ) and one red toe. It was AWESOME. 

And actually within her budget. Giggling happily, she ordered and paid for it. She didn’t like wearing jewelry, but she could attach it to her ladybug phone-bauble and it was just too cool to pass. 

Alya powered the laptop down and got to her feet, stretching and yawing. She stumbled to the couch and wrapped herself in the blankets, within minutes dead to the world. 

Plagg wiggled his way deeper into the crook of Adrien’s neck, purring softly to try and insure Adrien had a good nights sleep. 

_Vvvvvvsht_

Plagg’s eyes narrowed to mere slits and his gaze snapped to the balcony as a shadow suddenly appeared on it. He backed himself deeper into the shadows of the sleeping bag as he got a good look at the business suit with its flaring collar, the glint of purple at his throat, the purple capped walking stick and the very familiar aura of power. 

Papillon. 

Plagg waited, glad that his aura was essentially undetectable while he was out of the Ring, curling himself up and gathering what little power he had access to. It wasn’t much, but he’d found a few work arounds over the millennia and while he couldn’t do something as impressive as Cataclysm solo anymore… well, his bite was certainly worse than his bark, even now. 

One minute trickled past, then another, and Papillon just… stood there, staring at Adrien, and Plagg wished more than anything that he could see the man’s EXPRESSION. 

Adrien suddenly tensed above Plagg, then rolled over and up into a crouch in a single sharp motion, his head snapping around towards the balcony. 

But before the blond finished the motion or even got turned around enough to see the balcony, there was another faint _Vvvvvvsht_ , and Papillon was gone. 

Adrien seemed to stall out when he found himself facing an apparently empty balcony. Staying low, he crept out of the sleeping bag and over to the sliding glass door, carefully examining the rooftops before backing up. Rubbing his arms, he pulled the curtains closed, then cautiously went back to the sleeping bag and curled up in it again, this time with his back to the couches rather than the room. 

“Plagg?” he asked in a soft whisper. 

“Go to sleep, Kid.” 

“But I thought I saw-” 

Plagg flew up and curled up on Adrien’s temple, and started purring. “Go to sleep. You’re half asleep already.” 

Adrien frowned, but then yawned. He gave his head a small shake and tried to swat at Plagg. “St’p it…” 

Plagg smirked and turned the purr up a few notches. It worked like a charm, as it always did, and Adrien was soon asleep again. Plagg let the purr wind down to a soft rumble, and returned his attention to the still empty balcony. 

_~Tikki.~_

_~…Plagg? What’s wrong?~_

_~Papillon just teleported to Alya’s balcony to, get this, stare at my Kitten.~_

_~Papillon WHAT.~_

_~Yeah. Something’s going on, Tikki. Something more than we know, something more then what it seems, something that breaks the pattern. …and it gets worse.~_

_~How can it be worse then ‘Papillon just pulled a creepy stalker moment’?!~_

_~…Papillon suspects who Adrien is. I think we might have thrown him off the trail, or at least CONFUSED the trail… but we need to come up with something, and soon, to make sure Papillon stops hunting my Kitten.~_

_~…You’re right. That’s worse. Okay. Tomorrow at school, stay in Adrien’s bookbag, I’ll sneak out of Marinette’s purse and we can talk properly.~_

_~Sounds like a plan.~_

Plagg got into a comfortable position and kept his eyes and senses focused on the balcony and as far beyond as he could, letting his power curl up inside him. 

No one was going to take his Kitten from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnnnd that is that for Sans Sheriff ^_^ It’s kinda fun that I got to wrap it up for the new year.
> 
> I originally was going to break this into two chapters, but I honestly couldn’t find a good place for it, so I just kept it as a single block. The next fic will be ‘ **Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy** ’ and it’s going to be a fair beast. For one thing, rather than covering a day or two, as the fics have thus far, it will be covering a period of 2 weeks in universe. Rather than a single Akuma, there will be FOUR, and a fifth that will be touched on, although said 5th will not actually show up in the fic proper.
> 
> Sadly, I need more time then usual before I begin posting. While I’ve started plotting and outlining already, I want to have the plotting DONE and have a larger buffer then I did for Sans Sheriff before I start posting to avoid having to take a hiatus due to health/real life issues in the middle of the fic again.
> 
> So rather than 2 weeks, I’m afraid it’s going to be 4-6 weeks before ‘ **Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy** ’ begins going up. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.
> 
> BUUUUUT next fic is also when this ‘For Want of a Nail the Kingdom was Lost’ story upgrades from ‘the Nail was lost’ to ‘The Horse was Lost’.  
> I am officially breaking away from canon, with a change that (while a small action) is going to have a cascading effect that pretty much guarantees that while EVENTS from the canon season 2 may show up in my series, I will not be following the PLOT of Season 2 or beyond here.  
> Ye have been warned.  
> And that change revolves around the Peacock Pin.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~
> 
> So I dun goofed last chapter. When I wrote and posted the chapter, I misremembered the number of times Adrien has used the Shower excuse and seriously thought that he’d used it more than in Jackaday and Volpina ( _hence his line of ‘excuses’_ ). Sooooooooo… Adrien has totally used this excuse with Ladybug at least once before… off camera… Yeah.
> 
> To quote Tikki: That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
> 
> ~~~~~~~
> 
> On Alya’s family.
> 
> In Pire Noël we get to see Alya’s family in her home. This includes her Mom ( _whom we already met_ ), her sisters ( _who we were told about/have been mentioned-although now we know that they’re apparently twins about Manon’s age_ ) and… Her dad. Who is apparently Otis/Animan.
> 
> Gotta admit I did not see that one coming.
> 
> As is evident by the fact that I implied back in Madame Mort that Alya’s father was deceased and flat out stated that the man was a Nurse.
> 
> Never have I been so glad to have been so VAGUE before, because I actually ended up with a LOT more wiggle room than I was expecting, and some of that wiggle room actually comes from canon too!
> 
> For the canon side… well, the huge age gap between Alya and her sisters. Alya is probably about ten years older than they are ( _they look 5ish_ ) and that is a VERY unusual gap… although big age gaps like that DO happen in families that have remarried ( _stepmother or stepfather introduced to the equation and/or adoption_ ). No matter what, Otis has a strong connection to the family beucase he’s there on Christmas eve/day, the twins are snuggling with him and he goes out to bike in the snow in the early am hours with Alya. That means he is her father, stepfather, mom’s fiancé, OR he’s Alya’s Uncle.
> 
> For the fanfic side… well, Alya states her dad WAS a Nurse, and only IMPLIES that he’s not there anymore, and the later scene of Alya and her Mom still works as I skipped over the number of sisters present and just didn’t mention a dad/lack there-of.
> 
> So now I’m trying to figure out which of the paths I want to follow.
> 
> 1: Otis is Alya’s biological father and he USED to be a Nurse, however he recently switched careers to zoo keeper/worker
> 
> 2: Otis is Alya’s stepfather, her biological father passed away 7 or so years ago, Otis married Alya’s mom 5 and a half years ago and the twins are Otis’ biological daughters with Marlena
> 
> 3: The twins are Otis’ biological daughters, but not Marlena’s. Otis is Alya’s stepfather, and the marriage only recently took place (Otis and the twins being native Parisians, Marlena and Alya moving her from martinque near the start of the school year)
> 
> 4: Alya and the twins share the same father, but said father passed away last year and the family moved to Paris. Otis is either Marlena’s brother (Alya’s uncle) or her stepfather/Marlena’s fiancé
> 
> 5: Either the twins or Alya are adopted  
>    5a: The twins are adopted. Otis is Alya’s biological father, stepfather/uncle who has lived in Paris for several years.  
>    5b: Alya is adopted. Otis is the twins’ father/uncle. Alya moving to Paris was her being adopted.
> 
> ...This also means that I have to go back and edit out the 'stairs' ref for Alya's house, as it's obviously a single story 'flat'


End file.
